MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Re: How Many Astroids Hit The Moon Each Year?

Date: Wed Apr 16 15:24:58 2003
Posted By: James Steele Foerch, Observer, docent
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 1046877305.As
Message:

Dear Stephan,
The back side of the moon would be a wonderful place for telescopes- no light pollution and no radio/TV transmissions to interfere with radio telescopes. But it would be disappointing to have one the instruments smashed, but we don't have to worry.

During meteor storms like the August Perseids, several thousand meteors burn up in our atmosphere. Because our moon is nearby, almost as many hit it. However, the meteor storms are caused by tiny, tiny particles brushed off comets and would, over centuries and millenia, create a slight dust problem on our lunar telescopes.

Based on observations of asteroids passing near Earth, astronomers estimate a rock large enough to cause damage- 100 meters diameter - hit the earth and moon roughly once every 1000 years. Catastrophic crashes of asteroids 1 kilometer or greater appear to have occured millions of years apart.

For more information, check out the links page of the our Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association, http://www.graaa.org.

Jim Foerch
James C. Veen Observatory
Lowell, MI
USA


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