explosions on the moon
I saw a story a few days ago about explosions on the moon, and I was thinking about that as I attempted to catch it rising just after sunset. It rose above the horizon a little too late for the shot I wanted (with it rising through that pink and purple haze at sunset), but it was still as full as it gets, and colored by the atmosphere between us and it. Apparently it just dawned on scientists that the moon is bombarded every day in the same way the earth is by minute pieces of space debris... Can I get a great big "Duh.."???
Here (on Earth..) we see them as shooting stars, as they burn up in our atmosphere - on the moon, they strike the surface at 30,000 mph, and flash brightly enough to be seen with a decent backyard telescope they say - kinda like striking flint against steel... Turns out being hit by one would be bad news for astronauts..
Huh - you don't say...
You can see the entire story here:
www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-05-21-moon-explo...
explosions on the moon
I saw a story a few days ago about explosions on the moon, and I was thinking about that as I attempted to catch it rising just after sunset. It rose above the horizon a little too late for the shot I wanted (with it rising through that pink and purple haze at sunset), but it was still as full as it gets, and colored by the atmosphere between us and it. Apparently it just dawned on scientists that the moon is bombarded every day in the same way the earth is by minute pieces of space debris... Can I get a great big "Duh.."???
Here (on Earth..) we see them as shooting stars, as they burn up in our atmosphere - on the moon, they strike the surface at 30,000 mph, and flash brightly enough to be seen with a decent backyard telescope they say - kinda like striking flint against steel... Turns out being hit by one would be bad news for astronauts..
Huh - you don't say...
You can see the entire story here:
www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-05-21-moon-explo...