- "I was able to catch the biggest lunar impact flash in my observation history! This is a picture of the lunar impact flash that appeared at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, taken from my home in Hiratsuka (replayed at actual speed). It was a huge flash that continued to shine for more than 1 second. Since the moon has no atmosphere, meteors and fireballs cannot be seen, and the moment a crater is formed, it glows."
- "This is a picture of the lunar impact flash at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, captured by another telescope (playback at actual speed). At that time, the altitude of the moon was only 7 degrees, and I was glad that I could stick to the limit. At the time of observation, there was no satellite passing over the lunar surface, and from the way it shines, it is highly likely that it is a lunar impact flash."
- "This is a still image of the lunar impact flash at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023. It seems to have fallen near Ideler L crater, slightly northwest of Pitiscus crater. Because it is so bright, the generated crater is large, and the striations are clearly visible. It seems that the telephoto camera of NASA's lunar probe LRO can detect the fall trace."
It's not reddit you see. So read up on it. I'm actually a terrible HN commenter myself but I do like the attempt to keep striving for the almighty laugh as a low priority here on HN.
If you should comment, then contribute and don't just go for the easy joke or vapid comment.
I wonder how big it was. Seems like it would have to be pretty big to be that bright, but maybe it's one of those things that defy our regular intuition.
I don't know, but compared to the scale of the gigantic crater that's visible in the image, whatever it was was pretty much nothing in the grand scheme.
I've never thought of this before, but I imagine the ground could have glowed for minutes or hours, and been visible from Earth. That would have been quite something to see from a safe distance.
Rather than size, I wonder how much energy the impact released. Waiting for the videos that will do a simulation of what would have happened if this have hit earth.
The flash is the energy (heat, light) generated by the forces of impact. The asteroid has incredible amounts of energy since it was likely moving very fast compared to the Moon, and it's got to go somewhere.
Layman here. Considering there is no atmosphere on the moon, and stone's conduction properties, does that mean the short flash of light (radiation) was most of the heat energy the impact produced?
You see the part of the spectrum the camera sensor was able to capture. Most of the energy went into displacing/melting the regolith and the shockwave.
I meant in the regolith. Can't say if it exceeded the speed of sound in the medium there but given typical impact speeds it probably did. But we can call it a quake if you prefer.
In my layman opinion a dust cloud would at very least stick around for much longer than the duration that we see this glowing last. There has to be something else responsible for the flash imo.
The late Patrick Moore did a lot of work on what he termed transient lunar phenomena, essentially lights, or "clouds" on the moon, due to some unknown geological process.
"""
I magnified the location of lunar surface impact flash observed by Fujii Daichi-san on February 23 with 25cm reflection (telescope). It's near Ideler L crater according to Fujii-san. Unfortunately I was not able to discern anything like a new crater.
I thought I would be able to tell if the diameter was larger than 2km?! ...
I compared with with America's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, but can't really tell.
Even with such a flash, was that impact crater too small to be easily seen by telescope?
"""
57 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 122 ms ] thread- "I was able to catch the biggest lunar impact flash in my observation history! This is a picture of the lunar impact flash that appeared at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, taken from my home in Hiratsuka (replayed at actual speed). It was a huge flash that continued to shine for more than 1 second. Since the moon has no atmosphere, meteors and fireballs cannot be seen, and the moment a crater is formed, it glows."
- "This is a picture of the lunar impact flash at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, captured by another telescope (playback at actual speed). At that time, the altitude of the moon was only 7 degrees, and I was glad that I could stick to the limit. At the time of observation, there was no satellite passing over the lunar surface, and from the way it shines, it is highly likely that it is a lunar impact flash."
- "This is a still image of the lunar impact flash at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023. It seems to have fallen near Ideler L crater, slightly northwest of Pitiscus crater. Because it is so bright, the generated crater is large, and the striations are clearly visible. It seems that the telephoto camera of NASA's lunar probe LRO can detect the fall trace."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35107601 <Insert it is known GIF>
I am still figuring out participating in HN conversations but this downvote seems excessive no?
If you should comment, then contribute and don't just go for the easy joke or vapid comment.
There would be no shockwave, just some light and incredible amounts of very localized heat.
Looks like the sun might have been just below the horizon.
I'd expect high velocity dust to diffuse rather quickly in near vacuum.
https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon
See:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11038-007-9184-0
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20150021386/downloads/20...
http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com/2013/05/brightest-impact-r...
The data collected by the "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter" can be used to estimate the frequency of impacts.
https://www.lroc.asu.edu/posts/943
I'm leading new a citizen science project called MoonDiff, comparing against older images to look further back in time -- contact me if interested.
https://moondiff.org
https://trek.nasa.gov/moondiff/static/moondiff_intro.webm
https://github.com/nasa-jpl/moondiff
Planetary Names: How Names Are Approved https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Approved
https://twitter.com/oldspica/status/1630425706290360321
""" I magnified the location of lunar surface impact flash observed by Fujii Daichi-san on February 23 with 25cm reflection (telescope). It's near Ideler L crater according to Fujii-san. Unfortunately I was not able to discern anything like a new crater.
I thought I would be able to tell if the diameter was larger than 2km?! ...
I compared with with America's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, but can't really tell.
Even with such a flash, was that impact crater too small to be easily seen by telescope? """