Posted on Wednesday, February 26, 2014
The Moon with it's highly cratered surface is one of the most popular objects for observations among amateur astronomers, as it's easy enough to locate and with high magnification shows a variety of landforms that change in appearance during different phases of the Moon. But the Moon is of interest still to professional astronomers as well.
In September 2013 Prof. José M. Madiedo was observing the Moon using two telescopes in Spain as a part of a systematic search for lunar impacts and recorded the longest and brightest impact flash that has been confirmed to this date.
The impactor was a meteorite of about 400kg and hit the Moon in Mare Nubium creating a new crater of about 40m in diameter. If a meteorite of this size were to approach the Earth's surface however, it would burn up in the atmosphere.
The event description has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In September 2013 Prof. José M. Madiedo was observing the Moon using two telescopes in Spain as a part of a systematic search for lunar impacts and recorded the longest and brightest impact flash that has been confirmed to this date.
The impactor was a meteorite of about 400kg and hit the Moon in Mare Nubium creating a new crater of about 40m in diameter. If a meteorite of this size were to approach the Earth's surface however, it would burn up in the atmosphere.
The event description has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.