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During lunar eclipse of January 21, 2019 a meteoroid impacted the Moonproducing a visible light flash. The impact was witnessed by casual observersoffering an opportunity to study the phenomenon from multiple geographicallocations. We use images and videos collected by observers in 7 countries toestimate the location, impact parameters (speed and incoming direction) andenergy of the meteoroid. Using parallax, we achieve determining the impactlocation at lat. $-29.43^{+0.30}_{-0.21}$, lon. $-67.89^{+0.07}_{-0.09}$ andgeocentric distance as 356553 km. After devising and applying a photo-metricprocedure for measuring flash standard magnitudes in multiple RGB images havingdifferent exposure times, we found that the flash, had an average G-magnitude$\langle G\rangle = 6.7\pm0.3$. We use gravitational ray tracing (GRT) toestimate the orbital properties and likely radiant of the impactor. We findthat the meteoroid impacted the moon with a speed of $14^{+7}_{-6}$ km/s (70%C.L.) and at a shallow angle, $\theta < 38.2$ degrees. Assuming a normal errorfor our estimated flash brightness, educated priors for the luminous efficiencyand object density, and using the GRT-computed probability distributions ofimpact speed and incoming directions, we calculate posterior probabilitydistributions for the kinetic energy (median $K_{\rm med}$ = 0.8 kton), bodymass ($M_{\rm med}$ = 27 kg) and diameter ($d_{\rm med}$ = 29 cm), and cratersize ($D_{\rm med}$ = 9 m). If our assumptions are correct, the crater left bythe impact could be detectable by prospecting lunar probes. These results arosefrom a timely collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers whichhighlight the potential importance of citizen science in astronomy.

Location, orbit and energy of a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019