A about this size hits the moon about once a week or so.īottom line: Photos and video of the meteorite flash on the moon, caught during the January 20-21, 2019, total lunar eclipse. It’s a rare alignment of infrequent events. Astronomer and geologist Justin Cowart ( on Twitter) at Stony Brook University in New York told National Geographic: How often do meteorites strike the moon? More often than you might think. So did EarthSky community member Tom Wildoner: | Max Corneau in Rockwall, Texas – aka AstroDad – also caught the flash of the meteorite. In this case, many images showed the same thing, a flash south of the crater Byrgiu – on the western part of the moon – at 4:41 UTC.ĮarthSky community member Max Corneau, aka AstroDad, also caught the flash: View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. Most meteors and asteroids burn up in the earths atmosphere incinerating all or most of the incoming material before reaching the Earths surface. The flashes tend to be faint and short lived, and, when one occurs, astronomers want to check to be sure the flash isn’t from a camera, and not the moon itself. | Another shot from Greg Hogan of the meteorite flash on the moon, January 20, 2019, at 11:41 eastern (January 21 at 4:41 UTC).įlashes on the moon have been reported before, but never on a moon in eclipse, to our knowledge. Thanks for the heads up, Greg! View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | This flash on the red, eclipsed moon came from a meteorite strike! EarthSky friend Greg Hogan in Kathleen, Georgia was one of the first to notice he’d caught the flash on film. View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. You can see two of Greg’s photos below, with the meteorite flash marked by an arrow. I reviewed my images from the other night, and I am showing in the news reports that the impact happened at 11:41 eastern time … I’m pretty excited! Here at EarthSky, we heard the news from one of our community members, Greg Hogan in Kathleen, Georgia. The news spread quickly on social media, as people from across the path of totality posted their images and video of this tiny flicker of light. … reached out to the r/space community to see if others could weigh in. But some sharp-eyed photographers and livestream viewers also noticed a flash on one edge of the moon, as a rock from space struck the surface of Earth’s companion world, just as the total eclipse was beginning.Ī viewer on Reddit was apparently the first to notice the impact during the eclipse. The eclipse took place during the night of January 20-21, 2019, and many caught it on film ( see photos). A meteorite has already struck the Earth's surface and thus has already passed through the Earth's atmosphere.Astronomers are saying it might be the first known event of its kind, a flash of light seen during a total lunar eclipse. The ion tail is created when UV light from the sun ejects electrons from the coma.ĥ) There is a terminology problem here. The dust tail is created when radiation pressure from sunlight pushes dust particles out of the coma. The head of the comet is the combination of the coma and the nucleus.Ī comet actually has two tails: a dust tail and an ion tail. In a sense the coma is an atmosphere around the nucleus. This forms as the comet gets closer to the sun and the ice on its surface begins to sublimate (change directly from solid to gas). Frequently objects like this are referred to as "dirty snowballs." Since comets (by definition) form far away from the sun, the nucleus will be a combination of ice and rock. This is the central, dense core of the comet. From the above information, you can determine what it takes for a meteoroid to become a meteorite.ģ) Let's start with the nucleus. This means that the three things aren't that different, they're just in a different situation. If any portion of the meteor strikes the surface of the Earth then that portion is a meteorite. If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere then it is called a meteor. This debris can be any combination of rocky material, metals, or ice. A meteoroid is basically debris traveling through the solar system. This is known as the asteroid belt.Ģ) There are three terms important to this question: meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite. 1) This question is asking for the name of the region where the asteroids orbit the sun.
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