![]() Like me you're probably kicking yourself that you weren't staring at the Moon in binoculars or a telescope during the first minutes of totality. It looks just like a flashbulb going off. In this video taken by the Griffith Observatory during the total lunar eclipse on January 20, 2019, the flash appears at 3:43:11. But it might be possible for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to spy the fresh impact with its associated debris apron provided we can pin down the position. Will we be able to spot the impact scar or crater from Earth? Chances are slim as it's probably too small it doesn't help that it occurred so close to the lunar limb, where everything gets scrunched (foreshortened) because of perspective. A meteoroid weighing as much as a holiday turkey (~5 kilograms) will excavate a crater over 9 meters across. Speeds of incoming meteoroids range from 20 to more than 72 kilometers per second (45,000–160,000 mph), so even small rocks can pack a wallop. A steady stream of space grit likewise slams into the Moon, but with little to no atmosphere to resist, it strikes the surface and vaporizes in a flash of light and heat. The Office estimates that the mass of the impactors ranges from tens of grams to kilograms.Īccording to the MEO, about 33 metric tons (73,000 pounds) of meteoric material pelts Earth every day, nearly all of which burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Impact candidates recorded by Meteoroid Environment Office telescopes from 2005 to mid-2018. Nothing local about it - the event occurred at the Moon. We can rule out all four in one fell swoop: multiple observers saw or recorded the flash from widely-separated locations at the same time and at the same exact spot on the Moon. You might be skeptical of claims that the eclipse flasher was the real thing and not a pixel error on a camera chip, glint from an Earth-orbiting satellite, cosmic ray hit, or even a head-on meteor burning up in Earth's atmosphere. Virtual Moon Atlas with additions by the author The spot is between Byrgius and Lagrange, which are outlined for clarity. The center of the crosshairs marks the approximate location of the impactor on the night of the total lunar eclipse. Most were bright enough to show in amateur scopes had someone kept a steady watch. LUNAR ECLIPSE 2019 TEXAS FULLFull and gibbous phases are avoided because there's little to no dark portion against which to see impacting meteoroids - except of course when the Moon is in total eclipse! Between 2005 and April 2018 the MEO recorded 435 flashes from meteoroid collisions. Its Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO), in collaboration with the Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Environments Team, uses twin 14-inch telescopes equipped with video cameras to keep watch for lunar flashes between new and first quarter and again between last quarter and new. NASA is also keen on studying lunar impact rates. Amateur astronomer Christian Fröschlin of the Netherlands captured this amazing still image of the impact, which appeared on one of the 9,000 images he made of the eclipse. Dunham and Varros, along with other amateur astronomers, now routinely use video cameras to capture impacts, especially during major meteor showers, when the number of meteoroids in the Earth-Moon vicinity skyrockets. According to David Dunham, who has photographed nine confirmed probable impact flashes, amateur George Varros recorded the only other possible eclipse flash on February 20, 2008. ![]() ![]() What makes this event so unusual are the circumstances - it happened during a total eclipse watched by millions of people across half the Earth, making it the most widely observed and recorded lunar impact ever. Will Young's 4K video of the impact taken from Claiborne Park in southeast Texas shows the impact at multiple frame rates so you can clearly see its evolution from bright to dim over 3–4 frames. We don't know how big the object was, though I've seen it described as possibly "the size of a football," but it slammed into the Moon within a few kilometers of latitude 29.47° south, longitude 67.77° west. The flash appeared west of Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) southwest of the crater Byrgius at 4:41:38 UT (11:41 p.m. Take a look! Sunday's total lunar eclipse, rendered beautifully in this composite image, also included a bonus impact flash.Īndrealuna Pizzetti / Dario Caiumi / Mauro FacchiniĪs if the total lunar eclipse wasn't amazing enough, one binocular observer and more than a dozen people with still and video cameras recorded the split-second flash of a probable meteoroid impact on the Moon at the same time. Plus, two supernovae are now visible for telescope users. The Moon got bonked by a space rock during Sunday's total lunar eclipse. ![]()
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