Comments on: Another lunar impact!

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:31:54 +0000

Thanks, that really helps!

By: PK

PK — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:25:33 +0000

Pete says: What makes the flash?

Despite the short response by Irishman, this is actually a good question. There are two answers, (1) thermodynamical, and (2) microscopical:

(1) Thermodynamically, the meteor and the moon rock heat up to very high temperatures right after the moment of impact. Since rock is approximately a black body, it emits black body radiation, which depends on the temperature. If the temperature is high enough, this radiation is in the optical spectrum. However, this is not really an explanation, just a phenomenological description. To really understand what’s going on, we need to look at the atoms and electrons in the rocks:

(2) Microscopically, shockwaves through the rock excite the atoms and molecules in the rock to higher energy levels. When the electrons relax to lower energy levels, they emit photons. Hence the light.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:51:23 +0000

Energy? Lot’s of things use/create energy that don’t produce light. Surely most of the energy would be bouncing rock around. I’m only a kid, and (obviously) no expert but two rocks hitting each other doesn’t create light, does it?

By: Robert Carnegie

Robert Carnegie — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:14:25 +0000

I think I was told a while back that the Apollo equipment is too small to see with any telescope (the laser reflectors are a “cheat” for this), but there has been considerable development in instruments very recently, plus survey satellites. Nevertheless, has the entire Moon been sufficiently well photographed ahead of time to find good “before” and “after” pictures? At least, to say “this wasn’t here before” and then in a hi-rez picture “that must be it, and it looks like God dropped a water bomb in his sandpit”.

I saw it reported as “We have it in mind that one of these things could hit the next moon base”. Well, the moon base is probably about as safe on any given day as a moon rocket of equivalent size, yes? Give or take the quantity of loose junk that we have successfully boosted into low earth orbit; a more bad place to be, if you worry about that. James White wrote a couple of science fiction stories about… well, I think “Deadly Litter” is one. So anyway… unlikely as it is, I suppose we still want to take precautions so we don’t lose a /whole/ moon base at a stroke.

I think I’d be more worried about radiation. So a deep underground moon bunker is good for both, right?

By: Babbler

Babbler — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:50:43 +0000

That’s really great. Too bad you follow through.

What you would name the new crater?

By: Tom K

Tom K — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:13:38 +0000

Tony says:

…I am assuming, of course, that every crater on the moon has a name, and I could be wrong on that.

The surface of the moon is nothing but craters, from the miles-wide impact basins to the tiny pockmarks of interplanetary dust which create the “softened” look of the surface. But if we can pinpoint this one yeah, it oughta get a name.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:47:43 +0000

If there is a new crater, who gets to name it? I am assuming, of course, that every crater on the moon has a name, and I could be wrong on that. Even if some craters don’t have names, this one should be named, since it’s creation has been documented.

By: Irishman

Irishman — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:46:22 +0000

Impact of the meteor onto the Moon releases energy from the collision. Ergo, flash of light.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:57:42 +0000

What makes the flash?

By: Berlie

Berlie — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:25:52 +0000

According to NASA’s website, science.nasa.gov, it was a student member of the observing team that noticed the impact. How cool would that be?!

The same article also talks about how this study can help them find out about how often this happens. Which can have a major impact (pun intended) on a future base on the moon. I recommend the article, as well as the website. It’s because of NASA’s website that I found out about BA, and nearly every lunch hour since then has been spent either here or there.

By: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey

Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:12:52 +0000

So is anyone following up to look for a fresh crater? A 14-meter crater may be too small to see with a ground-based telescope (.007 arc seconds), but perhaps there’s a wider splash of bright ejecta that would show up.

And, of course, SMART-1 is still orbiting the Moon. Does its path take it in view of the impact site?

By: Unclaimed Mysteries

Unclaimed Mysteries — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:02:46 +0000

My neighbor Wes Swift was a part of this project. Last winter he tested the video system up at the local astronomy club observatory. He mounted the camera on the side of the dome, pointed it north, started the recorder and hunkered downstairs to shoot the breeze with a couple of us. About 1AM we saw a dazzling meteor flash on the monitor, a big streak across the patch of sky covered by the (~15-degree) camera field of view. We paused for a half-second, looked at each other, then bounded up and started to run outside only to meet simultaneously in the doorway. A true 3 Stooges moment! Once safely outdoors, we could see the trail for a few seconds in the northern sky. Inside, the camera recorded the trail for several minutes before it dissipated.

When I first saw this video I wondered if it could be a small head-on meteor. But I suppose they think the flash’s rise and fall likely indicates an impact. Coo00l.