On January 21, during the only total lunar eclipse in 2019, visible from most of Europe, northern Africa and the entire American continent, an event occurred which could be seen by every fourth person on the planet: a short bright flash near one of the lunar edges .
Something like this probably did not occur since the 12th century, when a group of English monks observed“ fire, hot flashes and sparks ”on the moon. Although in our case the impact was not as significant as medieval, its energy was enough to be noticed by astronomers around the world.
-Pablo Quartas, one of the authors of the study from the University of Antioquia (Colombia)
Although such collisions with the surface of the moon are not uncommon, they occur on average every hour, usually they are not visible because of the sunlight, but this time everything went well – a flash was noticed and photographed by millions of people, and the image analysis and video recordings allowed the team astronomers reveal some of the details of the object that provoked it.
According to the latest updated data, the size of the meteoroid that caused the outbreak is from 10 to 27 centimeters, and its mass does not exceed 40 kilograms. The impact caused a rapidly expanding cloud of hot material that dissipated in about a third of a second. If the estimates of the astronomers team are correct, then a crater with a diameter of 5 meters was formed at the site of the fall, which can be seen in the future with moon probes.
In addition, the scientists found that the meteoroid had a near-Earth orbit (Aton’s group) and rushed to the Moon at a speed of 47,000 kilometers per hour from the side of the constellation Scorpio or the constellation of the Cutter.
Object that have hit the moon during an eclipse
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