• Home
  • About
  • Authors
  • Suggested Reading

All That's Evil

A Few Technologists' Views on the World Around Us

Ebb & Flow

December 18, 2012 by Axis


Some of you may have seen the moon appear to go dark and then change colors last night. We have actually gotten a couple of calls about it and so for those of you wondering what happened last night this will answer your questions.

Ebb and Flow

An artist’s depiction of the twin probes Ebb and Flow that comprise NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission

Last night (December 17th, 2012), around 9:30pm GMT -6,  you may have (if you were lucky) seen a once in a life time sight. Last night the GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), NASA mission came to an end.  The Ebb and Flow probes produced the highest resolution gravity map of any celestial body according to NASA. NASA said: “The map will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved”. The GRAIL science mission was NASAs first mission fully dedicated to education and public outreach. Many of images taken by the probes (at the request of many 4th – 8th graders) can be found here: NASA GRAIL MoonKAM Image Gallery.

GRAIL mission logo on the first stage of the D...

GRAIL mission logo on the first stage of the Delta II rocket (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: The two GRAIL spacecraft will take a ...

English: The two GRAIL spacecraft took a long, counterintuitive but energy-saving route to the Moon by way of a point in space of relative gravitational stability called “Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1” (EL1). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The run down of last nights events you may have seen, if in the eastern US, is as follows according to my source at NASA. The GRAIL probes have reached the end of their operational lifetimes, and were unable to maintain the altitude required to continue their science mission. Last night, there was a very partial eclipse causing the darkness of the moon you would have seen and making this whole thing possible to be seen from earth. The probes, already in the process of burning out the remainder of their fuel supplies would have caused a slightly orangish light near the northern pole of the moon (remember only visible due to the slight eclipse). Once their fuel was expended, and reaching speeds of 6,051 kph (3,760 mph), the probes crashed into the surface of the moon. If you were lucky enough to see this happen last night consider yourself lucky.

NASA Animation of GRAIL impact

Related articles
  • NASA’s Ebb and Flow spacecraft on final decent to Moon Impact (clarksvilleonline.com)
  • NASA Probes Ebb & Flow Sent to Crash Into the Moon For GRAIL Project (z6mag.com)
  • NASA’s Twin Probes Crash Into Moon (voanews.com)
  • GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride (spaceref.com)
  • Two NASA probes crash into the moon (rawstory.com)

Let the World know:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Science, Space, Technology | Tagged Crash, Ebb and Flow, GRAIL, Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, Gravity Recovery and Laboratory, Impact, Luna, Moon, MoonKAM, NASA, Probes, Research, Space | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on December 20, 2012 at 1:54 pm This Year in Science! « All That's Evil

    […] Ebb and Flow (NASA ends the GRAIL mission) […]


  2. on December 18, 2012 at 9:41 am Tiffany TheMama Payne

    TY for the answers 🙂 and sorry for calling you a bit late 🙂 Was making sure I wasn’t “tripping” lol



Comments are closed.

  • Our Staff Writers

    • Root
    • Axis
  • Administrivia Advocacy An Atheist's Thoughts On Best-Of Cellular Computers Economics End of the World Environment Gadgets Gun Control Guns Hacking Holidays Humor Medicine Music Politics Privacy Science Smart Phones Social Media Society Space Special Segments Staffing Statistics Technology Theories & Such
  • On Facebook

    On Facebook
  • Tags

    Aliens America Ancient Egypt Android Apple AT&T Atheist BlackHat Blogging Brown dwarf Business Card Locks Cellphones Christmas Cody Brocious Computers Connecticut Constitution Culture December 12 2012 December 21st 2012 Democrats Doomsday Dwarf planet Dwarf star Economics End of the World Eris Exploits Facebook Family Guns Hacker Hacker Conferences health Holiday Holidays Information Technology iOS iPhone Mayan Calendar Medicine Military NASA Oklahoma Operating system Pattern Politics Quality Assurance Religion Republicans Research Schools Science Smartphone Society software Space Sprint Supervolcano T-Mobile Teachers technology Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner transportation United States User interface Verizon Violence Windows Windows 7 Windows 8 Yellowstone Yellowstone Caldera
  • RSS Feed

    RSS Feed RSS - Posts

  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 110 other followers

  • What’s on Root’s mind?

    • RT @neiltyson: Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that wanting to conserve the environment would be one of the things “Conservatives” do. - 2 years ago
    • RT @levarburton: Good Morning, Y'all... - 2 years ago
    • fb.me/1xY3E8XlR - 2 years ago
    • fb.me/CAqqrlQ7 - 2 years ago
    • fb.me/8l6qJYcop - 2 years ago
    Follow @ATE_Root
  • What’s on Axis’s mind?

    Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

  • Blog Stats

    • 74,822 hits

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: