The collision will be so violent, NASA officials said, we'll be able to see it here on Earth through a telescope:
The moon crash, part of a larger mission that includes a lunar orbiter, is a quest for ice. Water is the key ingredient for supporting future human outposts on the moon, a goal of the Bush administration.
NASA scientists say the collision should excavate a hole about a third the size of a football field and hurl a plume of debris into space. After the crash of the space probe, the mothership that released it will fly through the plume and look for traces of water ice or vapor — similar to NASA's Deep Impact mission last July, which blasted into a comet.
Link. Image: a NASA artist's rendering of what the crash will look like from a distance. (Thanks, Coop!)
