Anyone watching the Moon?

[betakappa]

I am new here, but I saw an asteroid in the news that they claim will be 1.1 Moon distance from Earth on July 3. Of course, it is not threatening the Earth directly, but what about the Moon? Has anyone actually explored the possibility of an impact of an asteroid to the Moon? Would it bounce off, and if so where would it bounce to? What would happen to the moon? I know the Moon has had its share of asteroid impacts, but the news say nothing about this. Thanks in advance.

 

[CalliArcale]

Yes, the same organizations that track Earth impact hazards also look at lunar impact hazards. They do this for two reasons: 1), splash hazard (chunks might be propelled in our direction), and 2) scientific research. Witnessing a large impact on the Moon could be enormously valuable, scientifically.<br /><br />This object is not expected to hit the Moon. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[betakappa]

Yes, I would imagine that chunks flying off towards earth from the moon could be catastrophic and very unpredictable with a significantly sized impact. Just for the record, any idea where the moon will be in retrospect to the asteroid on July 3? Thanks for your reply.

 

[CalliArcale]

Well, chunks may or may not be catastrophic. The impactor would have to have enough energy to hurl the chunks away at greater than lunar escape velocity, for one thing, and the bits would have to be big enough to survive entry into the Earth's atmosphere. But yeah, it's quite possible for chunks to make it to Earth. (In fact, I believe there are known lunar meteorites, just as there are Martian ones. This is presumably how they originated -- in violent lunar impacts.) So people watch for that.<br /><br />Spaceweather.com has a nice starmap for folks wanting to view the flyby. Please note, you will need a telescope and suitably dark skies -- it is predicted to be only magnitude 11 (too dim for the naked eye). Click here for the starmap.<br /><br />The free website Your Sky will generate all-sky and zoomed in starmaps for any time. I pulled up a starmap for the time of the flyby, and the Moon has long since set. It's clear the asteroid won't be coming all that close to the Moon, or both would be visible in the sky at the time of closest approach.<br /><br />On a related note, watch for the extremely thin crescent Moon tonight at sunset. It should be stunningly beautiful, with Mercury preceding it and Saturn and Mars following behind. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>