A new lunar impact observatory.

[Hill]

Astronomers Bill Cooke and Rob Suggs have just set up a research-grade observatory for their old school system.

Cooke and Suggs work at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Cooke heads up the Meteoroid Environment Office and Suggs leads the Space Environments team. Together with a half-dozen assistants and colleagues, they specialize in "lunar impact monitoring." In other words, they watch meteorites hit the Moon and explode.

"We've recorded about 30 strikes this year so far," says Cooke. Keeping track of these numbers is important to NASA as the agency lays plans to return to the Moon. "We need to know the odds of habitats and spacecraft getting hit."

"At our main observatory in Huntsville, we see a fair amount of man-made space junk passing between us and the Moon. If the junk is tumbling and catches sunlight, it looks like an impact flash."

"But suppose you have two observatories separated by some distance—say, one telescope in Alabama and one in Georgia. Then we can tell the difference between a tumbling satellite and a genuine impact. A real impact flash would be seen by both telescopes at the same location on the Moon. A tumbling satellite, on the other hand, will glint differently at the two locations."

Using the internet, NASA will monitor Walker County telescope data remotely ten days each month when the Moon is properly situated for viewing impacts. The Science and Technology Center will use the telescope the rest of the time.

Source: NASA - A New Lunar Impact Observatory

 

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