(meteorobs) An Explosion on the Moon

[Rainer Arlt]

>> "The object that hit the moon was "probably a Taurid," says MSFC meteor
>> expert Bill Cooke. In other words, it was part of the same meteor shower
>> that peppered Earth with fireballs in late October and early November
>> 2005."
> 
> So, I was just wondering : how do astronomers determine the shower of a meteor
> crashing on the Moon by watching this brief sparkle ? Is it only made by checking
> if the hit face of the Moon is in the direction of possible Taurids ? Or are there
> other arguments that would favor such an hypothesis ?

I am afraid there is very little information
that could help determine the shower. Yes,
the radiant of the Taurids is above the lunar
horizon for the situation plotted, but I 
doubt there is anything more. And since the
activity of the Taurids isn't higher than the
sporadic meteor flux, I think the conclusion
is extremely vague. Nevertheles -- very nice
imapct image sequence!

Best regards,
Rainer


-- 
Rainer Arlt  --  Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam -- www.aip.de
rarlt at aip.de --  phone: +49-331-7499-354  --  fax: +49-331-7499-526