Snoopy come home!

Apollo 11 landed men on the moon in 1969. What is now known to only a few is the fact that Apollo 10 made a dress-rehearsal that involved an approach of less that 10 miles to the moon's surface.

Once the moon part of the mission was completed, Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan, and John W. Young fired the spent LM (Lunar Module) ascent stage into solar orbit.

Now a team of scientists are looking for Snoopy (the name of the LM). The group is being led by Nick Howes.

Key quote:

"We're expecting a search arc up to 135 million kilometers in size which is a huge amount of space to look at," Howes continues. "We're aware of the scale and magnitude of this challenge but to have the twin Faulkes scopes assist the hunt, along with schools, plus the fact that we'll doubtless turn up many new finds such as comets and asteroids makes this a great science project too."

If the team find a potential suspect, they will turn to detailed spectral analysis to see if the hidden messages in the reflected light can confirm if they have succeeded in finding Snoopy.

Read the whole thing.