A large lunar impact blast on 2013 September 11
- 1Departamento de Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear, Facultad de Física, Universidad de Sevilla, E-41012 Sevilla, Spain
- 2Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, E-21071 Huelva, Spain
- 3Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Apt. 3004, Camino Bajo de Huetor 50, E-18080 Granada, Spain
- ↵★E-mail: madiedo{at}cica.es
- Accepted 2014 January 13.
- Received 2013 November 27.
- In original form 2013 October 23.
- First published online February 23, 2014.
Abstract
On 2013 September 11 at 20h07m28$.\!\!^{{\mathrm{s}}}$68 ± 0$.\!\!^{{\mathrm{s}}}$01 UTC, two telescopes operated in the framework of our lunar impact flashes monitoring project recorded an extraordinary flash produced by the impact on the Moon of a large meteoroid at selenographic coordinates 17 $_{.}^{\circ}$2 ± 0 $_{.}^{\circ}$2 S, 20 $_{.}^{\circ}$5 ± 0 $_{.}^{\circ}$2 W. The peak brightness of this flash reached 2.9 ± 0.2 mag in V and it lasted over 8 s. The estimated energy released during the impact of the meteoroid was 15.6 ± 2.5 tons of TNT under the assumption of a luminous efficiency of 0.002. This event, which is the longest and brightest confirmed impact flash recorded on the Moon thus far, is analysed here. The likely origin of the impactor is discussed. Considerations in relation to the impact flux on Earth are also made.
Key words
- © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
