Ground-based Detection and Analysis of the LCROSS Impact Plume (original) (raw)

Abstract

We observed the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) lunar impact on 9 October 2009 using the Agile camera with a V filter on the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. We employed a principal component analysis (PCA) to filter out large-scale seeing effects and imperfections in image registration from a series of 0.5-second images spanning eight minutes centered on the Centaur upper stage impact time. After applying the PCA filter, we detected an evolving plume from approximately 5-35 seconds after impact. We validated our detection method by comparing the time-varying plume brightness profiles from the LCROSS plume to those extracted from a synthetic image sequence that included a simulated plume. We performed 3-D ballistic simulations of trial plumes, extracted images with the correct viewing geometry from these simulations at 0.5-second intervals, superimposed these onto a computer-generated lunar landscape, and added ac...

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