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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.

5 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 ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

      Where's the kaboom? You call that an earth shattering kaboom?

      Oh. Wait.

      I

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:C'mon NASA, get your act together on units by femtobyte · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Granted, at that point they were talking about not staying out in a meteor shower if you're *on the moon*. That might be more appropriate advice than on Earth --- it's the atmosphere that keeps people safe from being killed by the average 40 tons a day of space debris raining down on the planet. Staying a bit less exposed won't protect you from a 5-ton hit, but it might keep you from getting punctured by some pea-sized shrapnel arriving at far higher than normal frequency in the same debris clusters with 40cm chunks.

    3. 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.

  2. Re:So what substance exploded? by Bieeanda · · Score: 4, Informative
    The original article addresses this in a footnote:

    The Moon has no oxygen atmosphere, so how can something explode? Lunar meteors don't require oxygen or combustion to make themselves visible. They hit the ground with so much kinetic energy that even a pebble can make a crater several feet wide. The flash of light comes not from combustion but rather from the thermal glow of molten rock and hot vapors at the impact site.