Video of Lunar Impact

Rocker5150 · Post by **Rocker5150** » 2006-12-04 05:41pm

Link

The clip shows a meteorite striking the moon during the last Leonid shower. What's amazing is the size:

"The flashes we saw were caused by Leonid meteoroids 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) in diameter," says Cooke. "They hit with energies between 0.3 and 0.6 Giga-Joules."

Really puts in perspective how much energy would be released in a real impact....something larger than a few inches.

-Kevin

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2006-12-04 06:31pm

Well, it's not blowing up the moon, but it's pretty damned awesome.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2006-12-05 07:50am

Damn... I'd never thought of how even small meteorites would affect the Moon.

I mean, I can see what the Big Ones did by looking at the huge craters, but tiny chips and pebbles never occurred to me.

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2006-12-05 07:59am

Impact energies of larger meteorites are pretty high. But as I understand, when "impact energy" is said, it means the KE with which the body impacts surface, and then this impact partially transforms to heat energy (hence explosion and fireball), partially is cancelled by inertia. Am I correct?