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NASA Meteoroid-Spotting Program Captures Brightest-Yet Moon Impact

Posted by timothy on from the look-exclusively-on-the-bright-side dept.

From a NASA press release published Friday: "For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. 'Lunar meteor showers' have turned out to be more common than anyone expected, with hundreds of detectable impacts occurring every year. They've just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the program." Watch the flash for yourself.

3 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. C'mon NASA, get your act together on units by femtobyte · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

    "size of a small boulder"? This has to be one of the most useless size descriptions possible (I suppose they could have said "the size of a random rock"). Given that they later indicate

    The 40 kg meteoroid measuring 0.3 to 0.4 meters wide

    it's not as if they shouldn't have been able to come up with a more descriptive metaphor.

    1. Re:C'mon NASA, get your act together on units by wvmarle · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What stroke me more is at the end of the video they suggest to stay indoors during meteor showers.

      I'd say the risk of your bulding being struck is higher than that of a space-walking astroaut, due to the larger area. And such a 5-ton-TNT hit is a pretty devastating blow to pretty much anything we can build. That is, unless they'd go deep underground (for more reasons than meteorites a good idea).

    2. Re:C'mon NASA, get your act together on units by jamesh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

      "size of a small boulder"? This has to be one of the most useless size descriptions possible (I suppose they could have said "the size of a random rock"). Given that they later indicate

      The 40 kg meteoroid measuring 0.3 to 0.4 meters wide

      it's not as if they shouldn't have been able to come up with a more descriptive metaphor.

      That bothered me less than the fact that in the same sentence they describe its size and mass in metric units but its speed in imperial units.