Smack! A New Crater Appears on the Moon/ Yutu Rover Update

universetoday.com ^ | December 18, 2013 | Bob King on

[BenLurkin]

Based on the flash brightness and duration of the St. Pat’s Day smack, the space boulder measured between one to 1.5 feet long (0.3-0.4 meters) and struck the moon traveling at 56,000 mph with a force of 5 tons of TNT. Scientists predicted then that the impact could produce a crater up to 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter.

Before and after views of the March 17, 2013 impact taken by the LRO camera. Fine streams of debris reach to the edges of the frame. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

[Steely Tom]

On Earth at least we an atmosphere to help slow these things down. And still they can obviously cause a lot of damage and destruction.

Yeah, I thought the amount of energy was a little low for 56,000 mph. But I checked it and it worked; they appear to be using an estimated mass of 90 pounds for the rock.

Then I looked at the scale (lower right of picture). That crater is something like 55 feet in diameter!

Rock 1.5 feet long digs out a crater 50+ feet across. Yeah, that's a lot of energy all right.

[Mr. K]

spaceX should send a rover there and then a manned mission