Why does the moon blink?

A new experiment will try to explain the strange lightning that appears on the surface of the Moon.

Transient lunar phenomena are brief flashes of light and color on the surface of the moon. This year alone, we have reported the appearance of a bright, warm flash in a lunar eclipse; in this case, it was caused by a meteorite impact. Researchers from the Julius-Maximilians University-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Germany hope to better understand these phenomena with a new experimental device.

Amateur and professional astronomers have reported attending these events for a millennium. But since there are 250,000 miles, an atmosphere and a ton of intermediate dust separating the surface of the moon and the earth, their understanding therefore requires more than just the understanding of the moon, but also the characterization of the intermediate space.

The researchers built a moon-watching telescope at a private observatory located north of Seville, Spain. If the two cameras of the telescope record a flash, he warns the researchers. It's still a work in progress, and Professor Hakan Kayal, head of the telescope team, expects a year before the end of the system, according to a statement from the JMU. Once the team has documented a flash, she will undertake additional analysis to determine her cause.

Kayal explained that research is important because if we want to increase our lunar presence, we should know the local conditions. This is especially true if lightning could have harmful causes for astronauts or lunar infrastructures.

Do scientists have any idea of ​​what might cause the events? Obviously, asteroids that slam on the surface of the moon can cause a flash. The researchers also suggested, based on observations, that some craters on the Moon emit radioactive radon. We also learn that the moon undergoes seismic activity as it contracts and that these tectonic events may cause visible lightning. Flashes can be caused by any combination of these causes or by other causes to be taken into account.

To make things more complicated, it is difficult to completely eliminate the meteors striking our own atmosphere, the reflections of passing satellites, or other atmospheric phenomena. Scientists need to gather more observations on these flashes in a coordinated manner, with independent confirmations, to take into account the error of observation.

And while they are there, someone might be spending a lot of money to build a telescope with a resolution high enough to image the Apollo landing sites since then. Earth so people stop sending me emails about lunar land plots every time I write. about the moon. Unfortunately, this would require a telescope too big, given the small size of the lunar modules in relation to the size and distance of the Moon.