[meteorite-list] "Meteoroid Hits the Moon" Article Question

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Sep 30 19:55:02 2006
Message-ID: <04bf01c6e4eb$cae6ab00$2721500a_at_bellatrix>

Technically, "fireball" refers to a bright meteor, which of course can't
happen on the Moon. But any collision that produces a lot of kinetic
energy- which describes most meteoroid impacts on the Moon- is capable
of generating an optical flash as material is vaporized at temperatures
high enough to ionize. Depending on the material and gases produced,
there might be a short period of true burning (that is, combustion via
oxidation), but that isn't necessary to get a flash- what the article
calls a fireball.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Groetz" <mpg444_at_yahoo.com>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 5:43 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] "Meteoroid Hits the Moon" Article Question


   Sorry for the ignorant question- but if someone
could help me with this I would really appreciate it.
   Ref: The current issue of Meteorite Magazine (Aug.
'06) Pg 5 news article.
   There are a couple of references to a fireball upon
impact.
   My question is- if the moon does not have an
atmosphere as such- how could there be a "fireball"
without the gasses (oxygen, etc.) to burn?
   I could understand a large cloud of impact material
ejected- but a true fireball?
   Sorry if maybe I am just reading this out of
context.

   Thank you if you can help me understand.
Take care
Mike
Received on Sat 30 Sep 2006 07:54:39 PM PDT