Europe's lunar satellite, the Smart 1 probe ended its three-year voyage this morning by crashing into the moon's surface at 4,475 mph.
The probe's violent end was observed by the Canada-France-Hawaii optical/infrared telescope located atop Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.
Scientists hope the impact kicked up a big enough lunar "soil" to enable them study its composition using ground telescopes.
Smart 1's crash was expected to leave a 3m by 10m (10ft by 30ft) crater on the Moon, spreading debris over 80 sq km (30 sq miles).
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.