It’s a slow news day, so I’m going to torture you with geeky goodness.

The Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium at the University of Louisville will do something super-cool this Friday, October 9th. The facility will allow the public the opportunity to watch a satellite crash into the surface of the moon as part of NASA’s mission to locate water on its surface.

The event is free and open to the public and begins at 7:00 A.M., with the crash scheduled for roughly 7:30 A.M. A live broadcast of the crash and behind the scenes videos will be featured. Planetarium director Rachel Connolly will take part in a question and answer session following the event.

From the press release:

During the mission, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will separate from a Centaur rocket as it nears the lunar surface. Part of the satellite will smack into a crater near the moon’s south pole sending up a plume of moon dust. A few minutes later, the LCROSS unit will pass through the plume collecting data and transmitting it to earth before it crashes as well.

Earlier moon missions have suggested that water, perhaps left over from comets hitting the moon in the last three billion years, remains in the shaded craters of the lunar south pole.

If you’re planning to attend, be sure to check NASA’s site to confirm that details of the mission haven’t changed. Or give the planetarium a call at (502) 852-6664.

This may be worth getting up early!