NASA Solves Moon Mystery (+Geology Picture of the Week, February 16-22, 2003)

February 20, 2003 | Jet Propulsion Laboratory

[cogitator]

Geology doesn't HAVE to be on the Earth.

[dirtboy]

Geology doesn't HAVE to be on the Earth.

Actually, from the root of the word, Geo, it does - this is lunology :^)

[Frank_Discussion]

Actually, I thought Geo means Earth, and Selene means Moon, so isn't the scientific term officially selenology? I thought I had heard this as fact somewhere...

[My2Cents]

Great report.

BTW, anyone have Stuart's original impact picture?

[My2Cents]

I was going to suggest "lunacy."

[cogitator]

*ping*

[cogitator]

BTW, anyone have Stuart's original impact picture?

Click the link (the title of the article); it's there. The impact is a white dot on the terminator. (Good word to use!)

[cogitator]

I was being lazy. The picture is below.

[cogitator]

Actually, I thought Geo means Earth, and Selene means Moon, so isn't the scientific term officially selenology? I thought I had heard this as fact somewhere...

You're probably right, but if you look it up in Websters, the second meaning applies:

"b: a study of the solid matter of a celestial body (as the moon)"

You'll see a lot of references to "lunar geology" abounding.

[eastsider]

That crater at the top looks like the man-in-the-moon's anus.

[My2Cents]

Cool. Thanks.

[Nick Danger]

OK, now they can explain this:

[cogitator]

OK, now they can explain this:

Trick of the eyes. It's not really there; we just think it means something.

[Frank_Discussion]

There's no "there" there.

[RightWhale]

What causes the bright flash of light?

Hint: Never misunderestimate the effect of kinetic energy.

[aShepard]

I think that that moon was taken through Monica's thong undies!

[sphinx]

Buratti and Johnson calculated the energy released at impact was about .5 megatons (35 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). They estimate such events occur on the lunar surface once every half-century.

Really? That would be a quite noticeable impact. If this is thought to occur once every 50 years on the moon, how often ought it to happen on earth? Even given that most asteroids would land in the ocean, I would think we'd have more of a record of observed collisions in historical times if something of this size is coming in every 50 years or so.

[Chemist_Geek]

Really? That would be a quite noticeable impact.

IF it made it to the surface. I'm not completely up on the details, but according to the story...

"Using Stuart's photograph of the lunar flash, we estimated the object that hit the Moon was approximately 20 meters (65.6 feet) across, and the resulting crater would be in the range of one to two kilometers (.62 to 1.24 miles) across. We were looking for fresh craters with a non-eroded appearance," Buratti said.

I'm fairly sure a 20 m diameter object would be burned to a cinder long before it hit Earth's surface. Having an atmosphere is a nice thing.

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

"OK, now they can explain this.

Now you've done it - you just created a weeks worth of "Coast to Coast" (formerly Art Bell) programming material!

[Boundless]

> If this is thought to occur once every 50 years on
> the moon, how often ought it to happen on earth?

Five per year in the 1 KT range.
One per century in the 1 MT range.
See:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/danl-lar021203.php

> Even given that most asteroids would land in the ocean

Or explode in the upper atmosphere.