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Lunar meteor strike

Comments

  • #2
    mikhail
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,862 ✭✭✭mikhail


    It's not burning up in an atmosphere, but there is a flash when it hits the ground. You're talking energy on the scale of a huge bomb, maybe even a nuke, depending on how big it was and how fast it was going.


  • #3
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 96,515 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    “An object impacting 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT”
    - Rick Robinson's First Law of Space Combat,


  • #4
    ps200306
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,663 ✭✭✭ps200306


    Lunar meteor strikes are fairly common. NASA have been monitoring them since 2005 and the ESA since 2017. On average an impact is seen for every couple of hours of observing. A few impactors wider than 30cm or so are bright enough to see with the naked eye.


  • #5
    jfSDAS
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 352 ✭✭jfSDAS


    Irish imager John McKeon also recorded an object hitting Jupiter on St. Patrick's Night 2016. Write-up is at https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/another-impact-on-jupiter-032920161/ while Youtube will have John's original clip. It was a fantastic achievement for an Irish amateur astronomer to make a significant contribution to the record of these events.


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