Probe Successfully Slams Into Lunar Crater

10.09.09 |

Traveling at nearly six-thousand-miles-an-hour a spent NASA rocket successfully slammed into the lunar surface, kicking up a cloud of rocks and debris that will be studied by astronomers around the world. Minutes later, the L-CROSS probe itself also crashed into the moon but not before sending back valuable data that could help scientists determine just how much water may exist on the moon. Critics have called the NASA suicide mission a “bombing” of the moon, but scientists say similar sized debris impacts happen there every month. The L-CROSS impact was streamed live back to viewers on Earth but many amateur astronomers could easily watch the final moments of L-CROSS with a simple telescope.