Moon: the great impact

September 2007, the Japanese space agency put in orbit, Kaguya, named after the Japanese goddess of the moon. This satellite is a marvel of technology with sophisticated analytical instruments and an HD camera that will shoot the moon with incredible accuracy. For one year, 100 kilometers above the lunar surface, Kaguya will reap the data, allowing scientists to answer the riddles posed by the work of the Apollo missions.

Nearly 40 years after the adventure of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the Japanese probe will help elucidate the mysteries of the geological formation of the Earth satellite. By studying its history, astronomers have confirmed the assumptions about the disappearance of the dinosaurs and demonstrate how life began on our planet, that's 4 billion years. Their work constitutes the preamble of another odyssey: the colonization of the moon in 2020.

Thanks to Kaguya, the Moon has become even closer, more intimate. It appears as the sister of our blue planet, a first step in the journey of the human race through our solar system.

Selected at Pariscience 2009
See the showing : Sunday 11th October 2009 from 17h30 to 19h00