Optical detection of meteoroidal impacts on the Moon
Optical detection of meteoroidal impacts on the Moon
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流星体对月球撞击的光学探测
作者：
J. Ortiz;P. Sada;L. B. Rubio;F. Aceituno;J. Aceituno;P. Gutiérrez;U. Thiele
流星体对月球的撞击应该会引起可检测到的光学闪光，但足够大的天体数量非常少，到目前为止还没有记录到明确的撞击闪光。据预测，与1999年11月18日狮子座流星雨有关的流星体流量将在月球的夜间产生可观察到的闪光。在这里，我们报告了对五次这样的撞击闪光的明确探测，其中三次被其他观察者同时看到。我们还在1999年7月16日观察到一次可能的撞击闪光。所有的闪光持续时间都非常短(0.02 S)，正如高速碰撞所预期的那样。
Impacts of meteoroids on the Moon should cause detectable optical flashes, but the population of objects that are big enough is very low, and hitherto no unambiguous impact flashes have been recorded. The flux of meteoroids associated with the Leonid meteor shower of 18 November 1999 was predicted to produce observable flashes on the night side of the Moon. Here we report the unambiguous detection of five such impact flashes, three of which were seen simultaneously by other observers. We also observed a possible impact flash on 16 July 1999. All of the flashes were of very brief duration (<0.02 s), as expected for high-speed impacts.