Decades-Old Soviet Reflector Spotted On the Moon 147
cremeglace writes "No one had seen a laser reflector that Soviet scientists had left on the moon almost 40 years ago, despite years of searching. Turns out searchers had been looking kilometers in the wrong direction. On 22 April, a team of physicists finally saw an incredibly faint flash from the reflector, which was ferried across the lunar surface by the Lunokhod 1 rover. The find comes thanks to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which last month imaged a large area where the rover was reported to have been left. Then the researchers, led by Tom Murphy of the University of California, San Diego, could search one football-field-size area at a time until they got a reflection."
Re:Why is this a surprise? (Score:1, Informative)
It all seems so easy! And yet it's not. Finding a tiny object like that isn't easy at all. The Moon is a big place, really.
As for dust storms and delinquents... somehow the return from from the Lunokhod 2 reflector has degraded significantly over time. Who knows why? It may have tipped, or perhaps was hit my a small meteor. Nobody knows.
This find is nice because of the position. It allows for more precise measurements than were previously possible. It's pure win.
now we are six (Score:5, Informative)
US left a corner reflector as well (Score:1, Informative)
American astronauts left a corner reflector as well for earth to moon distance measurements.
This I always felt was the best proof that humans were on the moon, as opposed to say that the whole thing was faked in a movie studio.
Neil and Buzz left it there
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/21jul_llr/
Re:Why is this a surprise? (Score:3, Informative)
But it could have been damaged by the environment. The thermal cycling is pretty extreme on the moon.
Re:why bother ? (Score:5, Informative)
Lunokhod 2 is in the most northerly position out of all available retroreflectors on the Moon, which will contribute to much more precise data about the Moon "wobble" (since the distance of Lunokhod 2 is greatly affected by it, in comparison to something near the center of the view from Earth)
Re:now we are six (Score:4, Informative)
The list to which you linked to includes Lunokhod 2. There are five, now all usable.
Re:US left a corner reflector as well (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a reference. [faqs.org]
Yeah ! Finally ! (Score:3, Informative)
This is way cool. The LLR (Lunar Last Ranging) people have been looking for this for a long, long time.
This (by providing a new fiducial point on the Moon) will significantly help Lunar geodesy.
Note, by the way, that LLR returns are always exactly 1 photon per shot, so this flash was no fainter than any other LLR return.