A Lunar Impact Flash - a flash of light when something hits the Moon's surface - was recorded on the southern hemisphere of the Moon and probably caused by a small meteorite the size of a golf ball.
Lasting less that one tenth of a second, the image was caught on New Year's Day 2017 on a remotely operated telescope at Aberystwyth University.
Lunar Impact Flashes are notoriously difficult to record. The meteorite would be travelling at anywhere between 10 to 70 km per second as it hit the surface of the Moon. That is the equivalent of travelling from Aberystwyth to Cardiff in just a few seconds, and the resulting impact would be over in a fraction of a second.Scientists estimate the Moon is hit by similar sized meteorites as often as once every 10 to 20 hours.
A similar meteorite hitting the Earth's atmosphere would produce a beautiful shooting star, but as the Moon has no atmosphere it slams into the surface, causing a crater the size of very large pot hole. Just under 1% of the meteorite's energy is converted into a flash of light, which we were able to record here in Aberystwyth.
- Dr Tony Cook, Aberystwyth University
However the impact flashes are so faint that they are only visible on the night side of the Moon using a telescope. A sighting can only be confirmed if it is seen from more than one location.
Dr Cook's research focuses on erosion on the Moon, new craters forming and how dust moves around.
The work could prove invaluable if humans decide to colonize the Moon.
The data we collect will enable us to understand better the nature of these explosions and protect future Moon bases or space craft.
It is highly likely that anyone standing on the Moon in the vicinity of one of these explosions would be blinded by the flash of light, before being hit by shrapnel travelling at 1-2 km per second. Space suits would be peppered and punctured by it, and this would be the effect even perhaps a few hundred metres away.
- Dr Tony Cook, Aberystwyth University
so ... With all the Observatories throughout the world, with all the sophisticated lay-astronomers, and now with all amateur backyard buffs with incredible new optical telemetry recording equipment...and well, just new generation cell phones can zoom in sharp on the moon now...
With all this interest and equipment trained on the moon since the early 20th Century, we now have a photo with an X on it to PROVE that meteors have beaten up the moon and "pocked" it all to hell...
...and that a meteor the size of a GOLF BALL can and could have been seen striking the moon all this time that the earth has scored direct ground hits regularly, even though most meteors burn up in the atmosphere...
...and even though this article says the moon is struck every 10 to 20 hours and that this is the first to be photographed in the British Isles...
PLEASE SHOW ME ANYTIME ANY PICTURE FROM ANYWHERE OR ANYONE AT ALL... of a meteor striking the moon.
Well, a meteor strikes the moon at least once a day, right? And at least some of the completely intact incoming meteorites that aren't burned up by atmosphere are larger than golf balls, right?
Considering there are 2 sides of the moon, our facing side is hit at least every other day, right?
You DO have a catalogue of these PIX as thick as New York's phone books, right?
Rrr-rrrr-ight.