Nov 18 Recap

This week's astronomy journal club was hosted by Prof. Pat Hall. Something we discussed about were:

1. The LCROSS team announced the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts near the moon's south pole. Read more here.

2. On Nov. 6, an asteroid, 2009 VA, came only about 2 Earth radii from impacting the Earth. It is the third-closed known non-impacting asteroid, only noticed by astronomers 15 hours before its closest approach. Read about it here.

Sep30 Recap

Today's host was Prof. Marshall McCall. Few highlights were:

1. LCROSS changed its target crater based on LRO's results. Read nature news here.

2. India space agency announced that they found water molecules on the moon, using NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper carried by Chandrayaan-1. Read NASA mission news here.

Sep23 AJC recap

I try to summary what we did in the journal club, give links if you like to know more or have missed the meeting. Please feel free to post an entry or a comment.

Water on the Moon? 
The lunar scientists believe they found the solid proofs that there is indeed water on the Moon. Evidences came from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18. Read details here at NatureNews.
On October 9, the Lunnar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will attempt to make a deep impact with one of the polar crater. Will it dig some water ice out? You can fellow it at NASA's official mission webpage of LCROSS.
Another article with the same topic will be published in the latest issue of Science.