Bibcode
Ortiz, J. L.; Sada, P. V.; Bellot Rubio, L. R.; Aceituno, F. J.; Aceituno, J.; Gutiérrez, P. J.; Thiele, U.
Bibliographical reference
Nature, Volume 405, Issue 6789, pp. 921-923 (2000).
Advertised on:
6
2000
Journal
Citations
69
Refereed citations
58
Description
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 (<0.02s), as expected for
high-speed impacts.