[meteorite-list] Hunting on the Moon!

From: ensoramanda <ensoramanda_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:26:57 +0000
Message-ID: <459E4411.2010806_at_ntlworld.com>

Hi Piper,

Re: the reply/thread below....

Yes, I agree that meteoroids are likely to be all vapourised and that
the software NASA is providing for amateurs to use is just to record the
impact flashes. Thought that some members of the list with scopes might
like to know about this.

I do find it an interesting debate though, which has come up several
times on the list.

Could there be meteorites lying on the moon?

I seem to remember that small fragments were found in some samples
returned from the moon.
Also, early on in the bombardment of the moon very large objects have
hit ...could larger pieces of these still be lying around?

Perhaps not all meteoroids in the past have the velocity we
suspect....what if they had an earth origin, blasted off from earth in
our early bombardment and then captured by the moons gravity at much
lower speeds. Early unchange rocks from the earth would make interesting
study.

I am not sure of the velocities involved in an object accelarating
mainly through the gravitational pull of the moon...would that be enough
alone to vapourise all meteors?

Perhaps I am talking rubbish here...but has any other person considered
this or anyone else on the list know the answer?

We may find out in the near future though as there seem to be several
lunar missions scheduled for the next few years!

Happy New Year and all the best

Graham



Hi Graham,

At 11:02 05/01/07, you wrote:

> Anyone of you hunters want to hunt for meteorites on the moon?!!!


There is a semantic error in the headline of this article. This NASA
project does not aim to locate moon meteorites, and you will notice that
the body of the article mentions only meteoroids and meteoroid impacts,
not meteorites. There are arguably no meteorites on the moon, as the
lack of atmospheric retardation means that meteoroids impact on the moon
with full cosmic velocity and are totally vaporized when they hit -- a
fact that the article suggests but does not make entirely clear.

Maybe some larger impacts send fragments of the lunar surface into
low-energy ballistic trajectories that deposit them elsewhere on the
surface of the moon. One could have a long discussion about whether to
call such objects "meteorites"!

Best wishes for the new year,

Piper Hollier
Amsterdam NL
Received on Fri 05 Jan 2007 07:26:57 AM PST