Bright Lunar Impacts and Sporadic Meteors

Sigismondi, Costantino; Imponente, Giovanni

doi:10.1142/9789812777386_0346

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Those impacts could be observed under three favourable conditions: 1) in the days close to the new moon when the dark side is illuminated by the planet shine, 2) far from the dark limb, close to first or last quarter and 3) the most favourable but far less frequent condition, during a total lunar eclipse. In fact, the first impact recorded during a total lunar eclipse was probably the one reported by Sigismondi & Imponente (2000a) on January 21, 2000 (exactly one metonic cycle ago).…”

Section: Observation Of Moon Impactsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Location, orbit and energy of a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019

Zuluaga,

Tangmatitham,

Cuartas-Restrepo

et al. 2019

Preprint

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During lunar eclipse of January 21, 2019 a meteoroid impacted the Moon producing a visible light flash. The impact was witnessed by casual observers offering an opportunity to study the phenomenon from multiple geographical locations. We use images and videos collected by observers in 7 countries to estimate the location, impact parameters (speed and incoming direction) and energy of the meteoroid. Using parallax, we achieve determining the impact location at lat.−29.43 +0.30 −0.21 , lon.−67.89 +0.07 −0.09 and geocentric distance as 356553 km. After devising and applying a photo-metric procedure for measuring flash standard magnitudes in multiple RGB images having different exposure times, we found that the flash, had an average G-magnitude G = 6.7 ± 0.3. We use gravitational ray tracing (GRT) to estimate the orbital properties and likely radiant of the impactor. We find that the meteoroid impacted the moon with a speed of 14 +7 −6 km/s (70% C.L.) and at a shallow angle, θ < 38.2 degrees. Assuming a normal error for our estimated flash brightness, educated priors for the luminous efficiency and object density, and using the GRT-computed probability distributions of impact speed and incoming directions, we calculate posterior probability distributions for the kinetic energy (median K med = 0.8 kton), body mass (M med = 27 kg) and diameter (d med = 29 cm), and crater size (D med = 9 m). If our assumptions are correct, the crater left by the impact could be detectable by prospecting lunar probes. These results arose from a timely collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers which highlight the potential importance of citizen science in astronomy.

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Section: Observation Of Moon Impactsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Location, orbit and energy of a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019

Zuluaga,

Tangmatitham,

Cuartas-Restrepo

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…However, this frequency remains largely unknown, and the available situations are too limited to make an accurate estimate. Visiting the discussion of the seven confirmed events of the November 1999 impacts during the peak of activity at the Moon, out of a ZHR equivalent of at least 50,000 over an effective 2-h period of observation, it follows that about 715 h of monitoring would be needed before an impact could be detected during non-storm periods (based on expressions in Sigismondi and Imponente, 2000). Estimates from Ortiz (2000) and Ceplecha (1994) place this number closer to 200 h. Considering the impact events of November 2001, the maximum flux at the Moon was predicted to be only 10% that of 1999, so one would have expected to see only 10% of the impacts that were seen two years before.…”

Section: The Visibility Of Lunar Meteor Impacts From Earthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Observation and Characterization of Lunar Meteoroid Impact Phenomena

Cudnik

Palmer

et al. 2003

Earth, Moon, and Planets

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Abstract. Confirmed observations of meteoroids from the Leonid stream impacting the Moon in 1999 and 2001 have opened up new opportunities in observational and theoretical astronomy. These opportunities could help bridge the gap between the ground-based (atmospheric) sampling of the smallest meteoroids and the larger objects observable with ground-based telescopes. The Moon provides a laboratory for the study of hypervelocity impacts, with collision velocities not yet possible in ground-based laboratories. Development of automatic detection software removes the time-intensive activity of laboriously reviewing data for impact event signatures, freeing the observer to engage in other activities. The dynamics of professional-amateur astronomer collaboration have the promise of advancing the study of lunar meteoritic phenomenon considerably. These three factors will assist greatly in the development of a systematic, comprehensive program for monitoring the Moon for meteoroid impacts and determining the physical nature of these impacts.

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“…This instrument was so accurate that allowed F. W. Bessel to measure in 1838 the first parallax of a star: 61 Cygni, 0.3 arcsec, selected for its significant proper motion of 5.2 arcsec/yr already discovered in 1812 by G. Piazzi. The heliometer in Goettingen [2] (1895) was a conceptual advancement of the heliometer's design; its space version is the Solar Disk Sextant SDS and its educational one is the double pinhole solar monitor [3,4]. The measurements of the solar diameter by meridian transit were monitored on a daily basis since 1851 at Greenwich Observatory and at the Campidoglio (Capitol) Observatory in Rome since 1877 to 1937 [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground-based measurements of solar diameter

Sigismondi

2011

Preprint

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The solar diameter changes or not? Whatever will be the answer the methods used for its measurements are more and more challenging, and facing new astrophysical and optical problems since the required space resolution is of astrometric quality. A quick overview on different methods is here presented, as well as the problem of the solar limb definition, emerging after the flash spectrum during eclipses.

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Bright Lunar Impacts and Sporadic Meteors

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Location, orbit and energy of a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019

Location, orbit and energy of a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019

The Observation and Characterization of Lunar Meteoroid Impact Phenomena

Ground-based measurements of solar diameter

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