An unlucky frog seems to have hopped in front of a photo taken of the LADEE launch at Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia on Sept. 6.
A remote camera was probably just a few feet in front the frog when it jumped up because of the launch noises, Zigmond Leszczynski, deputy executive director of the spaceport, tells us via email. He added: "The camera is a few hundred feet away from the launch pad, and in order for the frog to be that visible he or she had to be big!"
Why was the frog there in the first place?
Universe Today explains:
The launchpad at the Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport has a "pool" for the high-volume water deluge system that activates during launches to protect the pad from damage and for noise suppression, and likely there was a (formerly) damp, cool place that was a nice spot for a frog to hang out.
LADEE, which stands for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, is a robotic mission conducted by NASA. The probe will orbit the moon and send back information about the lunar surface and atmosphere.