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A Report on Searches for Possible Lunar Meteoric Phenomena *
Author(s) -
Haas Walter H.
Publication year - 1947
Publication title -
contributions of the meteoritical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 0096-2805
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1947.tb00014.x
Subject(s) - meteoroid , meteorite , astrobiology , atmosphere (unit) , meteor (satellite) , flare , physics , cosmic ray , astronomy , geology , parent body , cosmic cancer database , astrophysics , chondrite , meteorology
If the Moon were completely devoid of an atmosphere, as the textbooks assert, meteorites would strike its surface at full cosmic velocity. Both theoretical and observational evidence shows that the impact at cosmic velocity of a relatively small meteorite with the surface of the Moon would produce a flare easily visible from the Earth. Fully 65.7 hours of attentive systematic observation of the unilluminated portion of the Moon have not certainly revealed one such meteoritic impact‐flare. There have been observed, however, 10 moving luminous specks of short duration, seen projected against the Moon. An analysis of the characteristics of these luminous specks and of their paths is given in this paper. None of the results obtained in this analysis precludes the possibility that the observed luminous specks were lunar meteors; and it is shown that the number of such specks so far observed is roughly equal to the expected number of lunar meteors visible under the circumstances of the observations.