Scientists, Astronomers Pleased With Results

You might call it a SMART-1 Smackdown. European scientists are now going over the data after their first mission to the moon ended with a remarkable bang Sunday morning.

The probe crashed into the moon at 0542 GMT with a brilliant flash... much to the delight of officials at the European Space Agency, as well as astronomers in the western United States who saw the probe strike near its planned impact site on the lunar "Lake of Excellence."

"We’re very happy and very excited, the team is rejoicing," said SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing to NewScientist.com. "It was a big surprise -- there was a beautiful, very intense flash."

The violent end came after SMART-1 orbited the moon more than 2,000 times... searching for minerals and making maps.

As Aero-News reported last week, ESA officials decided to crash the probe into the moon when it ran low of its ionic fuel... in hopes of studying the results.

Those studies are now underway -- and so far, astronomers seem to like what they saw.

"It really is a great accomplishment for ESA to have flown this successful technology demonstration and science mission, and it went out with a bang," said Planetary Society spokesman Bruce Betts following the stellar collision.

FMI: www.esa.int