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A Meteorite Hit the Moon During Total Lunar Eclipse (newscientist.com)
Observers of Sunday's lunar eclipse were blessed with the first known sighting of a meteorite impact during such an event. From a report: The so-called "super wolf blood moon" was eagerly watched by millions of people around the world, mostly via live streaming video. During the eclipse, some people noticed a tiny flash, a brief yellow-white speck, popping up on the lunar surface during the online broadcasts. One Reddit user raised the possibility that this was a meteorite impact and others scoured eclipse footage for evidence of the event. A flash is visible in at least three different videos. Jose Maria Madiedo at the University of Huelva in Spain has confirmed that the impact is genuine. For years, he and his colleagues have been hoping to observe a meteorite impact on the moon during a lunar eclipse, but the brightness of these events can make that very difficult -- lunar meteorite impacts have been filmed before, but not during an eclipse. On this occasion, Madiedo doubled the number of telescopes trained on different parts of the moon -- from four to eight -- in the hope of seeing an impact. "I had a feeling, this time will be the time it will happen," says Madiedo.
That's no meteor, that's a systemd crash.
Just as a point of clarification, the impact was not during totality. It was during the partial phase of what would much later be a total eclipse of the Moon.
It's a little inaccurate to say the impact occurred during a total eclipse, because it actually occurred during a partial eclipse.
If you wonder about these things, you aren't alone, even here on /.
But looking back at some of my totality pictures I am able to see the meteor approach the moon before the impact.
I dismissed it at first as just a background star until I heard about the meteor, I can clearly see it moving towards the moon, and can make out the shape a bit.
Really cool, was not expecting that.
splat.
Oh.
it couldn't see the moon.
Now the Super Wolf Blood Moon is a were-asteroid!
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That was the Chinese lunar lander taking a photo of the Dark Side of the Earth.
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Not likely. If you could see it it would've made a much bigger impact.
That doesn't make sense. Typically the "splat" is at least 1,000 times brighter than the approaching sun-lit rock. I'd guestimate the size of the rock making that spot in the photo is roughly 100 feet across. You are not going to see a 100 foot rock in any amateur telescope. (Except maybe with a long exposure, but that would flood out the moon's image.)
Table-ized A.I.
I I'd guestimate the size of the rock making that spot in the photo is roughly 100 feet across.
According to TFA, the current estimate is that the rock was roughly the size of a football and weighed 2 kilograms. It's not specified if they mean the round-type football or the American version (sorry to those down under, but it's probably safe to rule out a reference to an Aussie-rules football).
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By clearly, I mean with a DSLR attached to a 5" telescope.
I doubt I would have seen anything otherwise.
You may be correct, unfortunately I do not have pictures up unto the impact itself to completely verify.
That being said the pictures I have are during totality, so the image was adjusted for the darker moon, but the meteor (or whatever it was I saw) came from the left, so it would have been more illuminated.
So you captured a 2kg rock moving at many kilometers per second the size of a football at a time when it was nowhere near the moon from over 360,000km away at a time where it was producing no light of its own?
You'd have better luck capturing an image of one of the many satellites orbiting the moon. They're much bigger.
Dust blew in front of your telescope. The meteor didn't even hit during totality.
In any case, I want to know why somebody would throw a football (American or otherwise) at the moon. Some could get hurt, you know. Just look at what this football did to the moon!
I saw some meteors, like the "shooting star" type entering our atmosphere, very near the moon in the sky while watching the total eclipse. Hadn't even occurred to me that some of them might actually be near the moon in space as well. Obviously not the ones I saw, since those were crossing our atmosphere and the moon is nowhere near our atmosphere, but I guess there was a shower of them and some were further away than the ones I saw, far enough to hit the moon.
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Liar.
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Everyone may sound like downers here, but they are just trying to inform you that regardless of what it was that you saw (we believe you saw something) it wasn't what you thought it was. It's not about exposure, it's about the fact that your optical equipment could not have resolved an object that small, and even un-resolved the amount of light from an object that size hitting your sensor would be undetectable. Just so you know. Focus on how cool your pictures are, you are right to be excited! I wish you'd show us your photos!
You might have been seeing some of the meteors in Earth atmo.
How many Libraries of Congress is this?
Hmm, I missed that in TFA. Anyhow, a football size strengthens my root premise.
Table-ized A.I.
But looking back at some of my totality pictures I am able to see the meteor approach the moon before the impact.
I dismissed it at first as just a background star until I heard about the meteor, I can clearly see it moving towards the moon, and can make out the shape a bit.
Really cool, was not expecting that.
Are you sure? It is unlikely that the equipment that you were using had sufficient resolution to capture an object that small and fast-moving.
You may have captured some precursor associated with the event, but I doubt that it was the actual object being resolved.
You do realize that the moon moves across the star field. It was probably just a distant star that you saw "move" in relation to the moon.
So you really mean a foot ball and not a hand egg.
Post the pics? Let us see.
...and why didn't they flag the moon for pass-interference?
Everyone knows you throw footballs over mountains, not at moons.
Pix or it didn't happen.
Yeah, I thought so.