Moon was hit by a meteorite during the last total eclipse

If you have not been able to observe live the total lunar eclipse, which occurred at dawn last Monday (21), you can still see incredible pictures of the phenomenon. But what everyone did not notice is that the moon was hit by a meteorite during the eclipse – and the Spanish astronomer José Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva was able to record this moment of impact on a video posted on YouTube

Madiedo attempted, for more than 10 years, to record a meteorite impact on the moon, failing until the night of the eclipse. And while recording the phenomenon with professional equipment, he noticed a small glow in the upper left quadrant of the Moon, which means that our natural satellite was hit at that time, well into the phase of the entire the eclipse, when the moon was very reddish in the sky.

Watch the video:

]

This was the first time that a lunar impact was captured on video by the MIDAS team during a total eclipse. Lightning bolts on the moon began to be systematically monitored in 1997, resulting in the creation of MIDAS (Moon Impact Detection and Analysis System) observatories. "We are monitoring the Moon's night area to identify the lightning bolts, so they are well contrasted from the darker background.We are monitoring the moon's night region.We usually monitor the moon about five days later. the new moon and about five days before the new moon, as well as during lunar eclipses, because during eclipses, the lunar floor darkens, "says Madiedo.

observations, the MIDAS telescopes use high-sensitivity video cameras that record continuously, the videos being then badyzed by software, which z, automatically identifies the lunar impact flashes, calculating their position on the Moon. According to Madiedo, the system is able to accurately detect an impact of about 0.001 seconds.

The astronomer also says that the chances of a magnitude of the lightning impact that occurred during the eclipse is once every 7 to 10 days. And although the team is still studying all the data, the preliminary estimates are that the meteorite that struck the moon has a mbad of about 10 kilograms

A Brazilian organization also set a historical record [19659009] The BRAMON (Brazilian Meteorological Monitoring Network), a non-profit and collaborative organization, is run by volunteers whose mission is to manage a MIDAS surveillance network, which has also recorded in images the impact of the meteorite on the moon at the height of the eclipse. meteorological monitoring, providing scientific data to the community.

In João Pessoa, Paraíba, members of the Association of Paraibana Astronomy organized a public event to observe the total lunar eclipse. Marcelo Zurita, a member of the Association and also BRAMON, left a telescope equipped with two cameras ready to transmit the phenomenon in real time on the big screen and to monitor possible lunar impacts. And then, the Brazilian also managed to record the lunar impact during the eclipse, which you can check in the video below:

According to BRAMON, he This was the second recorded lunar impact to video in Brazil. The first one was produced in December 2017 during the Geminid meteor shower.

Source: New Scientist, Gizmodo, BRAMON