New Crater On Moon Caught On Video 247
From A Far Away Land writes "NASA has released a video clip of a meteorite striking the surface of the Moon. From the article: 'On May 2, 2006, a meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy -- that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL.'"
Craters Gone Wild? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Craters Gone Wild? (Score:2)
Conspiracy? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Conspiracy? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Conspiracy? (Score:2)
I hope they blow it up so I can catch a piece.
To the mod - (Score:2)
Re:Conspiracy? (Score:2)
Anyway, don't be bitter my friend, I'm sure you'll manage an "FP!
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Informative)
Google does these kind of calculations very easily: enter
17 billion joules / 278 kilocalories
into google, and you will receive the answer:
(17 billion joules) / (278 kilocalories) = 14 615.4587
So the explosion was ~14615 mars bars.
Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory (offtopic response) (Score:2, Offtopic)
This is a completely offtopic comment but it has to be said. You don't know how correct you are in your comment. I'm one of those non-fatties and let me tell you, trying to find a pair of pants in my size (30" waist) is something close to impossible.
It matters not what store, time of year or any other combination you can think of, the dearth of clothes in general that I can wear is extremely small. For example, there were early Fathers Day s
Re:Obligatory (offtopic response) (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Obligatory (offtopic response) (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
knowledge * time = energy
So it all depends on how much time you spend in the library.
Where's the sound? (Score:5, Funny)
Then I saw it was a gif...and thought, "why is it an animated picture and not a video with sound?"
Then I realized I needed more caffeine. Oops.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where's the sound? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Where's the sound? In space... (Score:2)
After your 3rd coffee you realised that sound won't travel too well in the vacuum of space.
Re:Where's the sound? In space... (Score:2)
"...but our theory is simply that that no one has created a loud enough sound. And that's where we come in, because our band is truly, pofoundly loud!"
--Obscure reference (a virtual beer to anyone who gets it)
Re:Where's the sound? (Score:2)
In space, no one can hear you scream...
Re:Where's the sound? (Score:2)
about the lack of audio on an animated gif!
Re:Where's the sound? (Score:2)
I put the headphones on to watch it.
Yes, I had my coffee, and yes, I felt stupid. Maybe I was expecting NASA to put in some Hollywood Special Effects, like spaceships "swooshing" through space.
Colony on the moon (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
I hope it's not a one-in-a-million chance, because the thing about those is that they happen nine times out of ten.
Those poor astronauts. Chances are, one day they'll wake up dead.
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
The question is, do you wake up from a dream of sitting around posting banalities on Slashdot, or do you wake up from a dream of exploring the moon?
Obviously I'm one of the former types, but I have no objections to anybody waking up dead from the latter dream.
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:3, Insightful)
We don't notice it here on Earth at all because we have miles of gas to buffer the surface from most projectiles. While it might still be a very slim chance, I think it might be more frequent than y
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:3, Informative)
During a telescope test last November 7th, Suggs and Swift recorded an explosion on their very first night of observing. A piece of debris from Comet Encke struck the plains of Mare Imbrium, making a crater about 3 meters wide."
Now that regular monitoring has begun, Cooke's
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
The moon is big, really, really big. Colonies are small, really, really small.
Small Furry Creatures (Score:2)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Why not put the base underground? Ten meters or so should do it. Probably the temperature is more stable underground, making environmental maintenance a little simpler. Spread a bunch of solar panels on
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:4, Interesting)
the Hiroshma bomb.
Russia was hit about 100 years ago, the gulf of mexico millions of
years ago, and their are many bollide impact sites still visible
all over the earth .
As for ways to protect a moonbase, the best way would be to make
a mine, and have the base deep underground with multipe exit tunnels
and redundant compartmentalization like newer US navy ships .
Thus why the USS cole in yemen had a huge hole in its side but didnt sink,
after the bombing by terrorists several years ago.
A underground moonbase also would not experience the temperature extremes
of the surface, and would reduce radiation to near zero .
Ex-MislTech
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Chip H.
Re:Colony on the moon (Score:2)
Underground we'd get our radiation shielding for free. We could put solar panels on the surface, though a power plant would still be needed for lunar night (which is about 2 weeks long). Or we could think big and put the solar panels in a line going al
Terrorists on the moon? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Terrorists on the moon? (Score:2)
The queers. They're in it with the aliens. It's part of a diabolical plan to build lunar landing strips for gay Martians.
So NASA says it's San Fransisco. I disagree - I think it's Britain, and it's part of a diabolical plan to build lunar landing strips for British Martians. After all, we know that every evil person in outer space speaks with an English accent.
Re:Terrorists on the moon? (Score:2)
Or perhaps they are being launched by bugs from Klendathu.
Fireball (Score:2)
Re:Fireball (Score:2)
Meteors also contain all sorts of stuff from all over the place.
"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:2)
Re:"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:2)
Everyone knows that Libraries of Congress is a equivalent to 20 terrabytes, which in hard drives would be 40x500gb hard drives, or about 23 cubic meters.
The new crater on the moon is about 5500 cubic meters.
So, approximately 239 Libraries of Congress can fit.
Re:"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:2)
Re:"that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" (Score:2)
American, Canadian, European, or Lunar football? Or that really strange one... Australian.
and in news just to hand... (Score:5, Funny)
"That's about the same as 4 tons of TNT, or an entire Slashdot community" says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL.
Can't rival earlier calamity (Score:2)
Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:5, Interesting)
Scientist have been trying to figure out when something big will hit. Imagine if what hit the moon hit a major city... I'd definitely rather see my tax dollars spent on a project to deter meteorites as opposed to seeing money thrown around with people crying "Al Qaeda" anytime.
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:3, Informative)
I understand your point - anything large enough to make it through the atmosphere into a city could be mistaken for an attack by terrorists or perhaps another country. However, for a rock of this size TFA actually says:
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2, Insightful)
Even then, do you want the fear that a meteor is going to kill you in 3 hours 45 minutes or to just live like a normal day, then kaboom?
And I'd rather my tax dollars that do go to NASA be sp
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Absolutely! Ignorance may be bliss, but being informed can help you get out of town in time to save your life.
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:5, Informative)
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.27 x 10^11 Joules = 0.54 x 10-4 MegaTons TNT [note: the one that hit the moon only had 1.7 x 10^10 Joules of energy... less than one tenth of this hypothetical.]
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is less than 1 month.
The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 49200 meters
No crater is formed, although large fragments may strike the surface.
We only need to be worried about meteors a few orders of magnitude larger.
(Hell, TFA even explained that it would burn up, but I guess I can't expect anyone around here to know that...)
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
You'd do better to imagine the Earth meets Moon event as two spheres of fluid colliding.
That said, it sounds like your velocity assumption is conservative.
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Just because they haven't yet doesn't mean it's through lack of trying.
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Me too, but
Imagine if what hit the moon hit a major city...
First, as others have pointed out, it wouldn't reach the ground.
Second, we're talking about an explosion of 4 tonnes of TNT. I'm not greatly familiar with bomb sizes, but I think this is a few large conventional bomb, a large car bomb or small truck bomb. Unless the aim was unlucky, you're onl
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Correct. The U.S. used two 500-lb bombs to destroy the little cinder block house that Al-Zarqawi was in. Four times that in a large city would hardly cause widespread devastation.
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... (Score:2)
Slashdotted ? (Score:3, Insightful)
How the hell do you
Re:Slashdotted ? (Score:2)
Re:Slashdotted ? (Score:2)
Re:Slashdotted ? (Score:2, Funny)
That is fake (Score:3, Funny)
Videos make astronomy more tangible and real (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, I love astronomy and the photographs gleaned from it are simply the most profound images ever seen by mankind. Please understand the significance of what I mean there.
But when we can actually see these objects in motion, in-vivo so to speak, it's just so remarkable!
I only hope that when the next generation space telescopes are in orbit that they will be able to capture the streams of x-rays shooting from the poles of neutron stars exciting the gas of the surrounding nebula like a gigantic cosmic northern lights.
I *heart* astronomy
More astro movies. (Score:4, Interesting)
The crab nebula in motion:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive
Herbig-Haro object 47 in the Orion Nebula, look at this! This is similiar to the "Pillars of creation in M16.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HH47_animation
V838 expanding in Monoceros:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030402.html [nasa.gov]
The ebb and flow of clouds around Jupiters Red Spot:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001123.html [nasa.gov]
Re:More astro movies. (Score:2)
Thanks
Re:Videos make astronomy more tangible and real (Score:2)
Sagan's account (Score:5, Interesting)
As it was in the beginning, is now, and always shall be: for ever and ever. Amen.
The significance for the monks was that the Bible was telling them that the earth and heavens were unchanged since Creation and would remain unchanged forever after. Here was evidence that what their faith was telling them wasn't true. Sagan said the event caused quite a bit of problems for the monastery as the monks tried to reconcile their faith and reality.
If anyone knows anything more about the event Sagan was talking about, I'd really like to hear it. I've often wondered if the crater it left has been identified.
Re:Sagan's account (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno_(crat
Re:Sagan's account (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been surprised before, but on the face that sounds like hogwash. That a flash of light on the moon (when they didn't know what the moon was
Re:Sagan's account (Score:2)
Re:Sagan's account (Score:5, Insightful)
to here
is a non sequitur... in context, the latter does not necessarily follow from the former.
No need to "often wonder" (Score:2)
Re:Sagan's account (Score:2)
Do you know what verse in 119 supposedly reads "As it was in the beginning, is now, and always shall be: for ever and ever. Amen."? The closest thing I found was verses 89-90:
This verse speaks of God's faithfulness in that the universe continues to exist and function very much in the same way that it was created. For example, it could be said that the reason why we can
Re:Sagan's account (Score:2)
This is not in scripture, but is a belief of classical cosmology, which divided the universe into two major regions, above and below the Moon. Below the Moon change could occur. Above the Moon it was assumed on the basis of no evidence (that is, on faith) that change did not and could not occur. This bit of faith was given a big boost by the
Re:Sagan's account (Score:2)
That is because that phrase does not actually exist in the original psalm but was added as an addendum by the writer of that prayer book. You can see this in the phrase "Glory be to the Father and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit" that starts the addition. This phrase would have never have been written in the Old Testament (Hebrew and pre-Christ) book of Psalms.
"Caught on Video" (Score:5, Funny)
well of course it has to be underground (Score:2)
You can't just futz around waiting for the next spectacular space crash set to violins, you have to take basic precautions.
Trust me - I know - I saw it on TV!
Quality (Score:3, Insightful)
2.5mb of MJPEG noise reencoded as GIF to show off 5x5 pixel spot?
Re:So what are the odds (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2)
Sort of true, but in a very out-of-context way.
Our atmosphere burns up many meteorites, but that's not why we don't look like the moon.
The reason we don't look like the moon is that the atmosphere hides the evidence after the fact. It certainly doesn't protect the Earth from all projectiles.
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2)
Isn't it tectonics and an active planet that hides the evidence after the fact?
IMHO, the Atmosphere stops the "fact" from happening in the first place.
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2)
Tectonics will do a little bit, but not much.
That's easy to prove, by the fact that the moon has seismic activity as well, and yet still looks like... well... "the moon": http://www.physorg.com/news63645811.html [physorg.com]
It's really the wind, rain, etc., that hides most of it. Bodies of water, and plant and animal life contribute as well (none of which we could have without an atmosphere, anyhow).
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2)
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So what are the odds (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So what are the odds (Score:2)
Oh wait...
Re:Thanks for leting us know Nasa , 4 weeks after. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, the agencies monitoring our skies should alert the media every time a huge, ten-inch rock comes hurtling toward Earth. Thank goodness we now have actual evidence of interplanetary matter actually hitting to moon, so we can officially worry that they're not warning us of our imminent doom from... things small enough to disintegrate in our atmosphere.
Oh... never mind.
Re:Thanks for leting us know Nasa , 4 weeks after. (Score:3, Informative)
Ummm, 4 tons TNT equivalent? Who cares. One of these hits us daily and we don't seem to notice.
20 kiloton airbursts (5000 times bigger, think Hiroshima) happen annually and we don't notice those.
The 20 megaton airbursts (5 million times bigger, think Tunguska) that happen every hundred year
Re:on NASA and TNT (Score:2)