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Explosion on Moon Spreads Moondust
Jotii writes "NASA scientists have observed an explosion on the moon. The blast, equal in energy to about 70 kg of TNT, occurred near the edge of Marethe Sea of Rains on Nov. 7, 2005, when a 12-centimeter-wide meteoroid slammed into the ground. The main danger of such explosions is the static and toxic moondust, which is thrown around."
The main danger of such explosions is the static and toxic moondust, which is thrown around.
Danger to whom exactly? Should I be hitting the bunker to dodge that toxic moondust?
Oh no... it's the future.
"Moondust is electrostatically charged and notoriously clingy." --Dr. Tony Phillips, 2005
"But moondust will cover you. Cover you." --David Bowie, 1996
Is it me or does the artist's rendering of the incident look like a bunch of carmel corn is bursting forth from the crust of the earth?
Looks like a 'carmel' variety Pop Secret commercial.
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Obviously they can calculate the objects kinetic energy from the intensity of the flash. This will give them mass or speed, but not both. Perhaps the speed came from their assumption about the origin of the meteoroid, but that could still be wrong, of course.
BTW if anybody is interested in exactly what it was like to be walking on the moon in the 60's and 70's I recommend they have a look at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The main danger to what, the other moon rocks lying around within 10m of the impact point? Gimme a break, already!
The space.com headline is a bit closer to the mark... "Small space rock spotted hitting the moon".
--
Sometimes I think the only reason I read Slashdot is to complain about it
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
"NASA scientists have observed an explosion on the moon. The blast, equal in energy to about 70 kg of TNT, occurred near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) on Nov. 7, 2005, when a 12-centimeter-wide meteoroid slammed into the ground traveling 27 km/s."
There was an episode where a near-light speed object was headed toward earth and America and Russia panicked, until Russia saw that it was about to hit the moon instead. Even Russia thanked God for the moon's very existence when the end-of-the-world thingie actually did hit the moon and not Earth.
:D
(Of course, an alien intelligence intentionally fired it at the moon, but still)
It's not a matter of if some highly annoying rocks have been intercepted by the moon... it's more a matter of how many.
I for one am shaking my telescope with joy at my lunar masters.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
... it had something to do with the cheese?
Eh, if you know the kinetic energy wouldn't you know the *product* of the mass AND speed, but not either individually?
Been a while since I've taken physics but it seems intuitive...
Congress extends PAT RIOT act to include the moon.
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In the "real" universe, it is Praxis that explodes, and we receive the Klingons for a peace treaty.
I guess now this means we'll have to take the iniative and go meet Chancellor Gorkon.
All your explosions are belong to.... oh, nevermind...
Oh wait... nvm.
a rock slamming into another rock does not cause an explosion ...
sensational inaccurate titles here we come
That's the first time I've heard a meteor impact referred to as "explosion on moon spreads moondust".
I'm no astronomer so I'm not sure it's written that way and posted here on Slashdot because it's really something notable just having happened, or it's just a one among thousands of meteor impact caught with a camera?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
> Explosion on Moon Spreads Moondust But there, they just call it "dust" :p
I notice the second link helpfully points directly to the dupe!! I'm ready for this post to parent the mandatory karma cheating thread.
I suppose one might have to be careful when opening an airlock, lest moondust enter the airlock and then spread to the inside of the ship, but without an atmosphere, any dust blown up will settle quickly, so a simple rule of not opening an airlock right after anything nearby explodes should be sufficient.
Or is the risk that it will get on the outside of suits, and be hard to clean off, and so will be carried in?
It'd be pretty cool if the scattered moondust headed this way and burnt up in the atmosphere. We'd get a nice little moondust light show.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
Well of course. How do you think lunarians dig all these craters? With a shovel?
Welcome our moondust spreading overlords!
- There's no place like 127.0.0.1
Where my kite went.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Yes, sorry about that.. slight miscalculation.
Whose "caramel" ...
Oh you mean it's...
*taps the subject*
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Looks like santa missed earth ;_;
...the Apollo missions were faked, otherwise this could have hit some very expensive equipment up there and damaged it beyond repair!
So that's where Saddam hid the WMD!!!!!
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
Linking to one of the most embarrassing /. headers ever brings out the worst in me. :)
It seems Slashdot is doomed to have a silly relationship to moondust for all time. "Exploding moondust bounces like a toxic canonball."
BTW if anybody is interested in exactly what it was like to be walking on the moon in the 60's and 70's I recommend they have a look at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
Or visit your standard government soundstage...
BTW if anybody is interested in exactly what it was like to be walking on the moon in the 60's and 70's I recommend they have a look at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
and/or go see Magnificent Desolation in your nearest IMAX theater. I've seen it and it's very impressive.
Just like 70 kg of TNT, that makes it all clear now. They could have at least given the english equivelent so the average person could relate. I'm sure we all know what 154 lbs of TNT could do. ;)
moonestrials? They object to being slapped with your terran labels. As lunar citizens they prefer to be called Lunies.
BTW if anybody is interested in exactly what it was like to be walking on the moon in the 60's and 70's I recommend they have a look at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
On the other hand, if you interested what it was like during the 80's, I recommend viewing a Micheal Jackson video.
NEWS FLASH!!! Big rock hits another rock full of dust! DUST CLOUD RESULTS!!!! /panic
'If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.'
http://www.imao.us/docs/NukeTheMoon.htm
I don't believe anything Nasa says since they those faked Moon Walks.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
...meteor impact observed on the moon, actually. Five English monks saw a much larger one in 1178 as they were finishing up a day's work on their monastery's farm. There's a crater named for Giordano Bruno that may be the result of that.
rj
Obviously they can calculate the objects kinetic energy from the intensity of the flash.
There are several ways they can go, but some supposition is needed.
They can estimate the product of speed and mass from the flash. IF they can examine the crater depth they can get some idea of the two factors. Large slow (reletively speaking) impacts might for example produce large shallow craters while small very fast objects produce deeper smaller craters.
Without examining the crater, they have the intensity and spectral qualities of the flash to go on. A larger slower object would be redder and more spread out.
When they said they were planning a sequel to Shoemaker-Levy 9, I was expecting a bit more. Damn budget cuts!
Explosion on earth spreads earthdust
Explosion on mars spreads marsdust
I must be new here to still expect title's which actually tell what the article is about ? Something simple like : Explosion on the moon spotted ? stll seems hard.
Then the summary is 2 lines : The first being informative. The second completely out of context. I wished editors just added a list of moon related articles in this case iso trying to make up nonsens. The only danger here is that the moon doesn't have an atmospher to protect you from direct astroid impact. The fact that inhaling moondust is the least of you problems if you're in its trajectory.
They believe that the object was a Taurid. A quick Google shows their speed about 65000 mph, which translates to 29 kps. I bet the 2 kps difference comes from the moon's relative speed at the impact.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
What is this? News for stupid assholes who easily believe that the air on the moon should be cleaned with US taxmoney?
There's no air to clean.
There is other information available.
i ds.html. Since the Taurids are very well characterized, their orbital velocity is extremely well known, and thus the net impact velocity would be known with great precision, too. If it's one of the Taurids. Which is not so bad an assumption.
- 947.pdf
d -3-6063.pdf
For example, the date of the observation (7 November), and commentary in the article leads to the reasonable supposition that the observation was from a meteor in the Taurid stream http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/taur
Even without the Taurid assumption, you can look at other data to put some bounds on the meteor velocities. For example, there are excellent "head echo" observations by some big radars:
Arecibo http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acp/4/947/acp-4
Jicamarca http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acpd/3/6063/acp
and there have been several PhD dissertations in recent years exploring a variety of aspects of meteors, just from the plasma physics side (let alone the "meteor astronomy" side); check out Close and Dyrud from 2004 at BU, http://www.bu.edu/astronomy/alumni/phd.html.
The past decade has been a remarkably active time for meteor studies. There will be presentations about meteors at the URSI meeting in Boulder CO 4-7 Jan 2006, http://cires.colorado.edu/ursi/
BOND!!!
Use your Blackberry Pearl as a Bluetooth Modem in OS X
Maybe my joke is too complicated to understand for the modders...
The description of the impact site should read "the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains)".
Geeze after all of that nuclear waste exploding and the near destruction of moon base Alpha the government is still screwing around on the moon.
I have two comments here, first of all, why do they call this an explosion? It wasn't. It was an impact of an object, resulting in lots of stuff scattering from the impact.
;-)
n.
A release of mechanical, chemical, or nuclear energy in a sudden and often violent manner with the generation of high temperature and usually with the release of gases.
A violent bursting as a result of internal pressure. The loud, sharp sound made as a result of either of these actions.
Second comment: I think this is just a prelude to NASA furthering their conpiracy. In a couple weeks they will claim this explosion coincided with the landing sites and destroyed all evidence of our landing there!
Not THAT's a news story.
So every time the Mooninites launch an attack on the Golgotron, it makes Slashdot? Nothing to see here, move along...
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Was there actually some sort of combustion in this impact? I thought the moon's atmosphere was inadequately oxygenated to support an "explosion".
July 21, 1969
TRANQUITY BASE: This is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed.
Jesus H. Christ, Houston, we're on the fucking moon. Over.
HOUSTON: Roger. Tranquility we copy you. We cannot believe you
are on the fucking moon. Repeat. Cannot fucking believe it. Over.
TRANQUILITY: It was a smooth touchdown. The moon for Christ's
sake, the moon. Over.
HOUSTON: Roger that. You're clear for TI, walking on the moon. Over.
TRANQUILITY: We copy. Walking on the moon. Jesus. Over.
HOUSTON: We read you. Over.
TRANQUILITY: I'm on the bottom rung of the ladder. Just one more
step and I'm... (long pause).
HOUSTON: Tranquility?
TRANQUILITY: Holy (pause) living (long pause) Fuck!
HOUSTON: Tranquility? Do you copy?
TRANQUILITY: Are you fucking believing this? Over.
HOUSTON: We read you. Over.
TRANQUILITY: I abso-fucking-lutely am standing on the surface
of the fucking moon. I am talking to you from the goddammed
fucking moon. Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket.
HOUSTON: Holy Shit.
TRANQUILITY: Holy mother of fuck. The fucking moon. Over.
HOUSTON: A-fucking-affirmative. Over.
Larry
Jesus saved him and he became a Muslim. Go figure. Religion aside, personally I suspect a minor psychotic incident, but I am not a mental health professional--nor do I play one on TV--so my opinion is pretty meaningless.
Danger to Neil Armstrong!
Why does yahoo do this
a monolith?
Using google
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
the chronicle of gervaise
18 June 1178 (Julian calendar)
In this year, on the Sunday before the feast of St. John the Baptist, after sunset when the moon has first become visible, a marvellous phenomenon was witnessed by some five or more men who were sitting there facing the moon. Now there was a bright new moon, and as usual in that phase, its horns were tilted towards the east and suddenly the upper horn split in two. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the moon, which was below, writhed, as it were, in anxiety, and, to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the moon throbbed like a wounded snake... Then after these transformations the moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance.
One (controversial) interpretation of this narrative, first suggested by Dr Jack B Hartung some 800 years later, is that it is a description of a crater impact in progress. The "upper horn split in two" is the apparent effect of a plume of dark dust or vapour, the "flaming torch [of] hot coals and sparks" describes the molten ejecta, and the way in which the rest of the Moon "writhed", "throbbed" and eventually "took on a blackish appearance" could be the effects of a temporary lunar atmosphere of gas and vapour created by the impact.
... danger ... ?
Do we have people on the moon that I don't know about? What is this danger that they speak of.
He asked the size and speed. All that can be inferred is the energy of the strike. The mass can be derived from that along a range of impact speeds, but the diameter is nothing but pure guesswork.
For instance, if the meteoroid was iron, it could deliver the same impact in a smaller package. If it was primarily carbonaceous chondrite, it would have to be much larger.
Note in the summary only the diameter is given (stated as fact), not the mass or speed of the object. The summary was weak from a scientific standpoint. You would think the danger of moondust is that it kills on contact or something.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"He asked the size and speed. All that can be inferred is the energy of the strike. The mass can be derived from that along a range of impact speeds, but the diameter is nothing but pure guesswork."
He said it can give the mass (I know in the title he said size, but that is not the part I referred to) or the speed but not both... if you have the kinetic energy, and you know either the mass or the speed, you will know both. That is all I meant by my post.
Obviously you can chart speed vs mass if you know the kinetic energy, but for any given speed on that chart there is a single known mass, and vice versa.
Actually, there are several relationships between various physical properties of the projectile, the target and the ejecta.
That said, typically the impact velocity is assumed from the orbital velocity and the location of the strike ...
Get Rumsfeld on this, stat!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Use duct tape to close all holes and the magical moondust will not get you ... tonight
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
The original story seems to exist merely for entertainment purposes as the chances of any danger befalling us here on Earth is almost non-existent. It is a clever bit of marketing on the part of the lab that put out this information but it falls under a "chicken little" event.
Yes, I thought the landing from the POV inside the LM was good, and the "what if" bit with the rover crash was good as well.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
==quote==
What is this? News for stupid assholes who easily believe that the air on the moon should be cleaned with US taxmoney?
== end quote ==
There's no air to clean.
And thus the joke's punchline...
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Dust accumulation was thought to be a major life limiting factor for the Mars Exploration Rovers, but it turns out that dust devils blow dust off the solar panels and keep them relatively clean.
One of the two early soviet lunar rovers died when it got caught in some rough terrain and collected some dust on a radiator. It was killed by heat accumulation shortly after.
The apollo lunar roving vehicles (and their occupants) collected a lot of dust because it was kicked up by the wheels. If they had vulnerable parts which need to radiate heat they would have needed maintenance to keep working.
The apollo 12 crew found the surveyer 3 probe covered with dust because they flew over it too low during final approach to their landing site.
So dust is a problem on the moon (less so on mars) but mainly because of the movement of vehicles kicking the stuff up.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Acutally half the product of the mass and the *square* of the speed is the kenetic energy. In this case, kenetic energy K = (mv^2)/2.
Not that this is practically that different from the view point of calcualting the mass or the speed.
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You know, you mods need to take some Prozac or something. Zoloft. Anything.