Astroblog: Speaking of Things Crashing into the Moon

Speaking of Things Crashing into the Moon

Kaguya Impact: image by Jeremy Bailey and Steve Lee on the IRIS2 instrument of the Anglo Australian Telescope.

...The Japanse Space Agencies Kagyua (SELENE) Moon observation satellite crashed into the Moon not far from crater Gill on June 11, 2009. Australian amateurs observed but didn't pick up the impact. It was picked up by the IRIS2 instrument of the Anglo Australian telescope. The success of this instrument might be due to it's higher infrared sensitivity. Over at Lunar Networks there is a discussion of the impact of Kagyua, some more images, and SMART-1's observations of the impact site.