WASHINGTON, (PNA/RIA Novosti) -– It’s hard to tell what frogs are thinking if they’re thinking at all.
So it remained a mystery on Thursday if a four-legged amphibian was jumping for joy or living through every toad’s worst nightmare when it photobombed a shot of a NASA spacecraft launching toward the moon last Friday.
But there it was, reveling in its 15 seconds of fame, spread-eagle and high off the ground, face lifted toward the heavens and its tiny silhouette illuminated by the orange glow of flames from a rocket carrying NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) payload on a mission to the moon and then into lunar orbit.
“It’s an authentic photo taken by a still camera on a sound trigger set-up” during the 11:27 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT) launch Sept. 6.,” NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia news chief Keith Koehler told RIA Novosti in an emailed comment on Thursday.
“There were about eight or nine frames in the sequence. However, this is the only one showing the image of a frog,” he noted.
It was – to borrow a phrase from astronaut Neil Armstrong when he took the first step on the moon in 1969 – “one giant leap” but this one wasn’t for mankind, it was for “frogkind.”
NASA’s Chris Perry told RIA Novosti by email the frog was about 150 feet (46 meters) from the rocket.
Perry’s credited with taking the photo.
“It’s worth noting for us at Wallops because we’ve never caught anything like this,” Perry said, noting “our photo archive contains launch sequence photos from every launch and none that I’ve seen so far has shown us anything like this before.”
He also ventured a guess as to what was likely the ill-fated creature’s final meal: “Lots of flies out there that evening so I’m sure our frog or toad had a nice feast that evening.”
Frogs sleep by day and look for food – and love – by night.
The biggest ones found in North America are bullfrogs with bodies that grow up to eight inches (20 cm), said Discovery’s Animal Planet.
LADEE is on a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
“LADEE is doing well right now but we are not certain of the frog’s fate,” Koehler reported.
It was “definitely a surprise to us and a little sad,” Perry said.