Since 2009 we are running a project to identify flashes produced by the impact of meteoroids on the surface of the Moon. For this purpose we are employing small telescopes and high-sensitivity CCD video cameras. To automatically identify these events a software package called MIDAS was developed and tested. This package can also perform the photometric analysis of these flashes and estimate the value of the luminous efficiency. Besides, we have implemented in MIDAS a new method to establish which is the likely source of the meteoroids (known meteoroid stream or sporadic background). The main features of this computer program are analyzed here, and some examples of lunar impact events are presented.
The distribution of meteor magnitudes is usually supposed to be described by power-laws. However, this relationship is not able to model the whole data set, and the parameters are considered to be dependent on the magnitude intervals. We adopt a statistical distribution derived from Tsallis nonextensive statistical mechanics which is able to model the whole magnitude range. We combined meteor data from various sources, ranging from telescopic meteors to lunar impactors. Our analysis shows that the probability distribution of magnitudes of IMO and MORP data are similar. The distribution of IMO …
Lunar impact flashes have been monitored over the last 20 years for determining the mass frequency distribution of near-Earth objects in the cm-dm size range. In this work, using telescopic observations in R and I band from the NELIOTA database, impact flash temperatures are derived. They are found to range between approximately 1,300 and 5,800 K. In addition, it is also found that temperature values appear to have a distribution significantly broader than a Gaussian function, therefore making it difficult to estimate the impact flash luminous energy by assigning an average temperature. By mea…
We have reviewed and analyzed the lunar luminous events observations by William Herschel during the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower of 1787 and Leon Stuart near the peak of the Leonid meteor shower of 1953, seeking the impact craters that these events presumably formed. Evidence is presented that identifies two cold spot fresh craters as the expected candidates.
Curtin University（科廷大学）；Space Science and Technology Centre, Curtin University（科廷大学空间科学与技术中心）；International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University（科廷大学国际射电天文研究中心）；University of Western Australia（西澳大学）；Department of Physics, University of Western Australia（西澳大学物理系）；University of the Virgin Islands（维尔京群岛大学）；International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA)（国际掩星计时协会）
We discuss here a lunar impact flash recorded during the total lunar eclipse that occurred on 2019 January 21, at 4h 41m 38.09 +- 0.01 s UT. This is the first time ever that an impact flash is unambiguously recorded during a lunar eclipse and discussed in the scientific literature, and the first time that lunar impact flash observations in more than two wavelengths are reported. The impact event was observed by different instruments in the framework of the MIDAS survey. It was also spotted by casual observers that were taking images of the eclipse. The flash lasted 0.28 seconds and its peak lu…
This paper contains the results from the first 30 months of the NELIOTA project for impacts of NEOs/meteoroids on the lunar surface. Our analysis on the statistics concerning the efficiency of the campaign and the parameters of the projectiles and the impacts is presented. The parameters of the lunar impact flashes based on simultaneous observations in two wavelength bands are used to estimate the distributions of the masses, sizes and frequency of the impactors. These statistics can be used both in space engineering and science. The photometric fluxes of the flashes are measured using apertur…
Twin Impact Lunar Telescope network: Lunar Impact Flash observations of the 2025 Geminids
University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；Université Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸大学）；Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸天文台）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris（巴黎地球物理研究所）；LTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université de Lille, LNE, CNRS（巴黎天文台 LTE（隶属于巴黎文理研究大学、索邦大学、里尔大学、法国国家计量院和法国国家科学研究中心））
We are preparing a telescope system to carry out a survey of detection and analysis of lunar impact flashes. In the framework of this project, here we present all necessary methods to automatically identify these luminous events, their lunar impact coordinates, the origin of the impacting meteoroids, as well as the estimation of their physical properties such as mass and size. We tested our methods against confirmed impact events and constructed the meteoroid size frequency distribution of impactors using literature data of the last 20 years. In addition, we present the first lunar impact even…
In the last 20 years, over 600 impact flashes have been documented on the lunar surface. This wealth of data presents a unique opportunity to study the meteoroid flux of the Earth-Moon environment, and in recent years the physical properties of the impactors. However, other than through serendipitous events, there has not been yet a systematic search and discovery of the craters associated to these events. Such a meteoroid-crater link would allow us to get insight into the crater formation via these live observations of collisions. Here we present the PyNAPLE (Python NAC Automated Pair Lunar E…
