** Amateur astronomers are playing a crucial role in NASA’s mission to study the Moon’s surface and interior by reporting flashes of meteoroid impacts.
📍 ** United States, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany
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As NASA’s Artemis II astronauts explored the Moon in early April, they documented flashes of light caused by meteoroids striking the lunar surface – a phenomenon meticulously tracked by volunteers participating in the NASA-funded Impact Flash project. Scientists like Ben Fernando, lead of the project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, expressed gratitude for the videos submitted by citizen scientists using their telescopes worldwide. By analyzing the locations and brightness of these flashes, researchers hope to determine the nature and origin of the impacting objects and the resulting craters.
The project’s goals extend beyond simply observing impacts. The team anticipates using these observations to study ‘moonquakes,’ tremors on the Moon similar to earthquakes, by deploying seismometers to measure ground movement. Understanding these moonquakes will provide valuable insights into the Moon’s internal structure, as Fernando explained, “Your measurements of impact flashes will help us work out the sources of moonquakes we detect. This will help us work out what the Moon’s interior looks like.”
The Impact Flash project is a collaborative effort involving numerous amateur astronomy groups, including the Kilo-nova Catchers and Exoplanet Watch. Data collection during the Artemis II mission was supported by teams from Italy (IMATI-CNR), the UK (Aberystwyth University), and Germany (Technical University of Munich). Anyone with a telescope capable of video recording is encouraged to participate and contribute to this ongoing scientific endeavor – you can find instructions and upload your observations on the Impact Flash website.
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Original Source: Link
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