Preliminary results from the 2011-2012 moon impact flashes monitoring compaign

Abstract

The identification and analysis of flashes produced by the impact of meteoroids on the lunar surface is one of the techniques suitable for the study of the flux of interplanetary matter impacting the Earth. The first attempts to identify impact flashes produced by large meteoroids on the lunar surface by means of telescopic observations date back to 1997 [1]. Thus, impact flashes have been unambiguously detected during the maximum activity period of several major meteor showers by using this technique, and flashes of sporadic origin have been also recorded [2- 9]. This method has the advantage that the area covered by one single detection instrument is much larger than the atmospheric volume monitored by meteor detectors on Earth. It can be employed when the illuminated fraction of the lunar disk varies between 10 and 60 %, i.e., during the first and last quarters. At least two telescopes must operate in parallel imaging the same area on the Moon in order to discard false detections produced by other phenomena such as, for instance, cosmic rays. Our team is performing a monitoring of the night side of the Moon from our observatory in Sevilla. This location provides very favourable statistics of clear nights per year. We employ several telescopes equipped with high-sensitivity CCD video cameras and we have also developed our own software to identify and analyze impact flashes. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the main lunar impact flashes recorded during our 2011 and 2012 campaigns.