The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will create 'a dimple' a third the size of a football pitch on the Moon at 12.30pm (BST).It will search for water and ice on our nearest neighbour by crashing into a crater in the Cabeus region near the Moon's South Pole. Anyone can watch the event online through the Nasa TV website.
The event will also be visible to amateur astronomers across parts of the United States, where it will still be dark. They will need a minimum of a 10in telescope to view the six-mile high plume thrown up from the initial impact.
'The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth,' said Brian Day, the Outreach Officer on LCROSS. 'This is a wonderful opportunity for citizen scientists to join Nasa in the process of discovery.'
The LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket will detach and impact first on the surface. It will be followed four minutes later by the LCROSS Shepherding Spacecraft, which will fly through the plume of debris and relay this data back to Earth. It well then crash, creating a second debris plume. Approximately 350 tonnes of material will be propelled into the sunlight and break down to their basic components, so scientists can study the composition using ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope.
'If there's water there, or anything else interesting, we'll find it,' says Tony Colaprete, the mission's principal investigator. (Daily Mail)