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Scientists Witness Meteor Strike on the Moon

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-what-they-want-us-to-think dept.

Lonesome Squash writes "BBC reports that scientists have seen a smallish meteor strike on the moon. Impact only equivalent to 70kg of TNT, but still, you wouldn't want to have it land on your moonbase. At that size, it's kind of neat they saw it at all."

4 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe by __aacvzh55 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This would be a dupe. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/2 4/0844222&tid=160&tid=14

  2. Re:Speaking of explosions on the moon... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quick Google search found it. It looks like it was true. Carl Sagan even worked as part of the project.

    http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/nuke_moon_0 00514.html

  3. Re:Old News by Jaseoldboss · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you subscribe to NASA Science News you get to read about it on December 23rd. Link

    Click "Join mailing list" at the top.

  4. Re:I'll go out on a limb here... by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Informative

    > I am guessing that there will be a crater of some sort after the
    > impact. Maybe some floating dust.

    Dust doesn't float very well in a vacuum. In fact, it doesn't float at all. Dust particles created by the explosion will follow ballistic trajectories just like those of the larger fragments. This is important because while you are unlikely to be hit by a large chunk if you're kilometers away 1000 m/s dust could do a lot of damage.

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