Posted on 02/21/2003 1:47:27 PM PST by cogitator
Clementine image of the moon showing the fresh crater believed to be the impact site for the event photographed on November 15, 1953 by amateur astronomer Dr. Leon Stuart.
Full press release:
NASA Solves Half-Century Old Moon Mystery
(click link for additional pictures, including the "Stuart Event" picture of the Moon)
In the early morning hours of Nov. 15, 1953, an amateur astronomer in Oklahoma photographed what he believed to be a massive, white-hot fireball of vaporized rock rising from the center of the Moon's face. If his theory was right, Dr. Leon Stuart would be the first and only human in history to witness and document the impact of an asteroid-sized body impacting the Moon's scarred exterior.
Almost a half-century, numerous space probes and six manned lunar landings later, what had become known in astronomy circles as "Stuart's Event" was still an unproven, controversial theory. Skeptics dismissed Stuart's data as inconclusive and claimed the flash was a result of a meteorite entering Earth's atmosphere. That is, until Dr. Bonnie J. Buratti, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lane Johnson of Pomona College, Claremont, Calif., took a fresh look at the 50-year-old lunar mystery.
"Stuart's remarkable photograph of the collision gave us an excellent starting point in our search," said Buratti. "We were able to estimate the energy produced by the collision. But we calculated that any crater resulting from the collision would have been too small to be seen by even the best Earth-based telescopes, so we looked elsewhere for proof."
Buratti and Johnson's reconnaissance of the 35-kilometer (21.75-mile) wide region where the impact likely occurred led them to observations made by spacecraft orbiting the Moon. First, they dusted off photographs taken from the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft back in 1967, but none of the craters appeared a likely candidate. Then they consulted the more detailed imagery taken from the Clementine spacecraft in 1994.
"Using Stuart's photograph of the lunar flash, we estimated the object that hit the Moon was approximately 20 meters (65.6 feet) across, and the resulting crater would be in the range of one to two kilometers (.62 to 1.24 miles) across. We were looking for fresh craters with a non-eroded appearance," Buratti said.
Part of what makes a Moon crater look "fresh" is the appearance of a bluish tinge to the surface. This bluish tinge indicates lunar soil that is relatively untouched by a process called "space weathering," which reddens the soil. Another indicator of a fresh crater is that it reflects distinctly more light than the surrounding area.
Buratti and Johnson's search of images from the Clementine mission revealed a 1.5-kilometer (0.93 mile) wide crater. It had a bright blue, fresh-appearing layer of material surrounding the impact site, and it was located in the middle of Stuart's photograph of the 1953 flash. The crater's size is consistent with the energy produced by the observed flash; it has the right color and reflectance, and it is the right shape.
Having the vital statistics of Stuart's crater, Buratti and Johnson calculated the energy released at impact was about .5 megatons (35 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). They estimate such events occur on the lunar surface once every half-century.
"To me this is the celestial equivalent of observing a once-in-a-century hurricane," said Buratti. "We're taught the Moon is geologically dead, but this proves that it is not. Here we can actually see weather on the Moon," she said.
While Dr. Stuart passed on in 1969, his son Jerry Stuart offered some thoughts about Buratti and Lane's findings. "Astronomy is all about investigation and discovery. It was my father's passion, and I know he would be quite pleased," he said.
Buratti and Johnson's study appears in the latest issue of the space journal, Icarus.
Actually, from the root of the word, Geo, it does - this is lunology :^)
BTW, anyone have Stuart's original impact picture?
Click the link (the title of the article); it's there. The impact is a white dot on the terminator. (Good word to use!)
You're probably right, but if you look it up in Websters, the second meaning applies:
"b: a study of the solid matter of a celestial body (as the moon)"
You'll see a lot of references to "lunar geology" abounding.
Trick of the eyes. It's not really there; we just think it means something.
Hint: Never misunderestimate the effect of kinetic energy.
Really? That would be a quite noticeable impact. If this is thought to occur once every 50 years on the moon, how often ought it to happen on earth? Even given that most asteroids would land in the ocean, I would think we'd have more of a record of observed collisions in historical times if something of this size is coming in every 50 years or so.
IF it made it to the surface. I'm not completely up on the details, but according to the story...
"Using Stuart's photograph of the lunar flash, we estimated the object that hit the Moon was approximately 20 meters (65.6 feet) across, and the resulting crater would be in the range of one to two kilometers (.62 to 1.24 miles) across. We were looking for fresh craters with a non-eroded appearance," Buratti said.
I'm fairly sure a 20 m diameter object would be burned to a cinder long before it hit Earth's surface. Having an atmosphere is a nice thing.
Now you've done it - you just created a weeks worth of "Coast to Coast" (formerly Art Bell) programming material!
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