Moon Proble Crash: Artificial Meteor to Be Created (say what

[rogerinnh]

One of the current articles on Space.com is titled "Moon Probe Crash: Artificial Meteor to Be Created". So, let's see, they're going to cause a space craft to crash into the Moon. Can that be considered a "meteor". A meterorOID is the object that falls onto a planet. When it's actually ON the planet it's called a meteorITE. And the bright path of the meteoroid as it plummets through the planet's atmosphere and heats up to incandesence, is called a meteor. So, will this space craft be a meteor when it plummets towards the Moon? There's no atmosphere on the Moon, so no bright, "burning it's way through the atmosphere". I think someone needs to change the title of that article.

 

[yevaud]

Actually not. The moon <i>does</i> have an atmosphere, as tenuous as it is. This was imaged by one of my former professors, Michael Mendillo, at Boston University. So it's at least factually correct in that sense.<br /><br />http://sirius.bu.edu/planetary/moon.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[dragon04]

Not to digress from the topic (well, maybe a little), I was very interested to learn that there is a significant amount of Titanium present on the Moon.<br /><br />That, in itself could present a financial motive to set up shop. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[astroguard]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>RogerInNH</b> wrote: <i>A meterorOID is the object that falls onto a planet.</i><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote>That is correct, and that is the term NASA used last December when they announced that the lunar explosion observed in November was a meteroid impact.

 

[efron_24]

It is ONE of the MAJOR sad things .. that we still haven's send an ENORMOUS bom towards the moon to create a large man made crater !!! One so big that it can be seen from earth. Such an event should have happened 1-1-2000 of course, or with the celebration of the Eagle Landing.<br /><br />It is a WASTE of everything that there is no rocket on it's way to moon righ now to create a new crater.. We, the people of earth, deserve such a firework ! <br /><br />Every time I see the moon I think about this<br />and every time it makes me sad !!<br /><br />Old, sick and other People die every day without having seen such a thing in their life <br /><br />because we haven't done it yet. Horrible !!!<br /><br />COME ON USA, CHINA, RUSSIA.. combine all bombs in the world, end the wars and send all explosive material towards the moon to do something possitive with it.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

I think you might be surprised at the puniness of the resulting crater. To get a crater big enough to be seen from Earth, we're talking a pretty huge crater, and I don't think our nuclear arsenal is really sufficient. You'd have to redirect a very small asteroid to get a crater of that size, and that wouldn't be an easy task either. <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>

 

[efron_24]

Imagine <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />That's giving a nice idea of the size of explosions that must have rocked Earth and Luna in the past. <br /><br />Were the largest craters that we see on the moon created by bodies the size of Deimos or Phobos ? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Alas, I don't know the math to figure it out, but I do know that the size of a crater is dependent on not just the size of the impactor but also its velocity and the angle of the impact. A small, fast-moving object may do as much or even more damage than a large, slow-moving one. It's all down to the total energy involved, which comes from the equation F=ma (force equals mass times acceleration -- remembering that acceleration is an absolute value, and deceleration is treated exactly the same way as acceleration). I don't know how to estimate size of crater based on knowing F, though. <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>

 

[efron_24]

There is soooo much I would like to know about the moon.. and so little info .. <br /><br />So few artist renderings of events that created the face of the moon. If steam was released.. if there are clouds at the moon after a major impact, as even low gravity must be able to keep dust from escaping.. letting it fall back slowly<br /><br />I have or had hopes we could see these things by setting of some TNT. Just to see what the effects are.<br /><br />Not only the creation of a crater, but the dust clouds..<br /><br />Heavy material will go down right away.. but ..<br /><br />It is time to put some camera's over there.. web cams<br />if we can not yet send humans, send 100s of "webcams".. <br /><br />so they can film day and night. Every now and than a little rock must fall from the sky.<br /><br />Let's hope more artists will try to work out what it must have looked like .. standing on the moon 4 b. years ago<br /><br />With the lava crawling over the ground. How slow was it<br /><br />What collors were there ?<br /><br />The earth, much closer, GRANDE in the sky<br />Did it move ? When did the Earth froze in the lunar sky ?<br /><br />Do we know ?<br /><br />Do we know when the Lunar rotation syngronised ?<br />If earth (and it does) still slows down, it can't have been a matter of days, it must have happened a long time after the moon formed.. or ?<br /><br />Did the lava on the moon came right out of the ground<br />or were there a kind of vulcano's<br /><br />Are any left (i do not think so. Google.moon does not show (m)any, but perhaps they are burried under the lava..<br /><br />It is time a large Lunar website is created by Nasa, with much much much more info than we can find now.<br /><br />We know more and more about Mars, but so little about the pale sister in the sky<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nacnud]

The moon is efectivly in vacuum so any dust clouds would settle out at the same rate as rocks etc. Even small dust grains would move parabolicaly. <br /><br />Watch the dust being kicked up in as the luna rover drives around