Re: WTF is this crap? Meteor to hit moon in 15 days?...

G wrote:
I really think it's bull but some guy I know was saying this to my sister. I was wondering if anyone
else had heard this hoax or possible story...I haven't heard anything about this....

Yes, it is bull-pucky. You can quickly check out these stories by
looking at the NASA Near Earth Object table generator at:

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_ca

There are no near earth objects coming within 14 lunar distances of the
Moon in the next 60 days.

Your guy is probably refering to the coming of the Perseid meteor
shower in the next couple of weeks. As the International Meteor
Organization notes:

"The Perseids also become active in mid-July with increasing rates as
the Earth nears the August 12 maximum."

and -

"[T]he major Perseids (whose maximum is most likely between 23h
-1h30m UT on August 12 -13, though other peaks on August 13 around
2h and 9h UT are also possible from recent past results), both suffer
badly from August's full Moon."

Probably your guy has put the Perseids and Moon together and concluded
there would be a meteor impact.

Others in this thread have given you examples of how amateur and
professional astronomers photograph the impacts of very small meteors
on the Moon as a nominal event involving very small 70 kilo TNT
explosive equivalents. These explosions are smaller than amounts of
TNT used in some terresterial open pit mines.

In short, no need to panic and dig your "Armagedon" bomb shelter yet.

- Canopus56

.

Relevant Pages

  • Perseid Meteors to Peak August =?windows-1252?Q?11=9613=2C_200?= =?windows-1252?Q?5_=28Forwa
    ... Sky & Telescope magazine predicts that the Perseid shower will reach its peak late on Thursday and Friday nights, August 11-12 and 12-13. ... An observer under a dark sky might see more than 60 Perseids per hour between midnight and dawn. ... More about the Perseids and how to watch them -- including how to make a scientific meteor count and where to report it -- appears in the August 2005 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine and online in the articles listed at the end of this press release. ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit the Moon
    ... Amateur Astronomers See Perseids Hit the Moon ... There's more than one way to watch a meteor shower. ... "We monitor lunar meteors in support of NASA's ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • The 2005 Perseid Meteor Shower & Mars
    ... Mars joins the Perseid meteor shower for a beautiful display on August ... The Perseids come every year, beginning in late July and stretching ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: what if meteors hit the moon
    ... automatically that shows the meteor as it approaches earth & moves ... how meteor comes by them. ... radiation sickness a few weeks later, this was a problem on the Moon also. ... when we see meteor showers one wonders, do they hit the moon ever, ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • what if meteors hit the moon
    ... automatically that shows the meteor as it approaches earth & moves ... how meteor comes by them. ... what if a meteor hits the moon, we hardly read about this, its about ... i'm sure peace has this all solved already, ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)