October 9, 2021
Today in 2009, NASA’s Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was intentionally crashed into a permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the Moon’s south pole. This impact created a plume of material from the bottom of the crater containing frozen water which had not seen sunlight in billions of years.
Visible camera image showing the ejecta plume at about 20 seconds after impact. Credit – NASA