Explore the site of one of the moon’s newest impact craters -- live
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The largest lunar impact ever caught on camera took place last Sept. 11, when a small asteroid 2 to 4.5 feet in length slammed into our moon’s pockmarked surface at 37,900 mph.
The resulting explosion caused a flash of light that briefly burned as bright as the north star, Polaris, and lingered for 8.5 seconds. It also left a new crater on the moon that scientists estimate to be about 130 feet in diameter.
On Sunday, at 6 p.m. PDT, the website Slooh will point its telescopes at a part of the moon known as Mare Nubium where the recent impact occurred, and you are invited to watch the show live, right here.
[Updated at 10:45 a.m. PST March 17: You can watch a video replay of Slooh’s show above. Skip to the 54-second mark to start watching.]
The video will be accompanied by a discussion of recent asteroid impacts around the solar system including the recently discovered impact on Mars that created a 100-foot-wide crater and sent debris flying as far as 9 miles away.
Viewers will also learn about a minor asteroid that hit Earth’s atmosphere on Jan. 1.
The lunar impact in September was recorded by a network of small telescopes known as the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System, or MIDAS. In a paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers report that the asteroid hit the moon with the force of 15 kilotons of TNT -- about the size of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast.
The show will be hosted by astronomer and frequent Slooh presenter Bob Berman and Slooh’s technical director Paul Cox.
If you have questions about asteroids during the show, you can send them by Twitter using the hashtag #moonimpact.
Even if you can’t make the show, you should make an effort to look up in the sky Sunday evening. You’ll get a chance to spot the full moon, and that has its own impact.
Happy full moon! And follow me on Twitter for more like this.
