Interesting Impact Picture On Moon

While doing research for a future thread based on the moon, I was using the LROC Quick Maps web site and came upon this curious image:



The coordinates for this area is:

-12.31646
-50.26187

You can use the LROC Quick Maps link to look for yourselves, or what ever site you like to use.

This image is at 0.5 meters per pixel, and the white area is just under 20 meters long.

Didn't quite look like a normal impact crater, even a fresh one, but reminded me more of a artificial object impact like the Apollo 14 S-IVB stage in this picture here:



Located at

-8.18979
-26.03261

I went through this list of Man Made Objects On The Moon, but none of the coordinates match.

It could be a meteor impactor, however the black material and irregular shape is what I find most interesting.

Any ideas what it might be?

Impact from an asteroid?

The place Dave Chappelle is hiding!

reply to post by FinalAccount2008


It is possible it is simply a meteor, and the black material came from it.

However, it would have been a very low velocity impact as most impacts happen at speeds that pretty much vaporize the impactor.

Most craters are round because it's the energy or blast that makes them that shape, although you can have irregular shaped craters, this one looks very strange to me.

reply to post by eriktheawful


wild guess here.. but maybe it could be one of the ascent stage modules.

reply to post by eriktheawful


there was a video that showed the actual impact on the moon. i tried to find it. but all youtube had was some stupid nasa informational one.

It's certainly imagination fodder as in I can tell you what my imaginative mind sees but in truth I have not a duce of an idea....Cool find!............PHAGE!!!

Had to.

Originally posted by choos
reply to post by eriktheawful

 

wild guess here.. but maybe it could be one of the ascent stage modules.

I thought the same thing. It doesn't look like an impact crater. It appears that a blast was set off on the surface of the moon.

reply to post by SixX18


That's what I thought. The way it looks almost like something took off from that spot?

Nice one Erik.I have always been interested.As a matter of fact,the scope is almost built.
spring clean lens if that made any sense.

Secret moon landing by the russians?
no they wouldnt plan on a return trip for their astronats...
Perhaps its a hit from a ranging laser or even a weapons test of a laser?
The beam maybe hit at a glancing angle amking it oval shape?
Its very size must make it too big to be anything of ours.....

reply to post by stirling


Maybe...out of context,although your moving picture is quite cool

I'd say it's an impact site of an ejecta from a bigger impact. In other words, a more powerful impact created a crater somewhere and sent huge chunks of rock flying. One of them landed here, blasting the darker layer of lunar soil off and exposing the lighter rock underneath.

I'm trying to find the hi-res NAC footprints of this location at wms.lroc.asu.edu... but there seems to be technical problems.

P.S. for everybody's convenience, permalinks to that location: Permalink 1 Permalink 2

Update: I searched for the LRO NAC images for those coordinates at wms.lroc.asu.edu...
On this LRO images, the impact feature appears to be an ordinary round crater:

M166182355R


The unregular appearance is due to some dark material ejected.

reply to post by wildespace


That is still an awesome find.
I would LOVE to see a fresh crater on the moon!

I'm still hoping they check out the impact site from the one NASA recorded with the super bright flash.

reply to post by wildespace


I think the impacts from like your picture our more round due to being high velocity impacts (IE orbital speeds). Where as the impact picture in my OP appears to be at a much lower velocity (sub-orbital speeds).

The energy of the impact is what makes most craters round, no mater their angle of impact most times.

Your theory of it being a impact from ejecta makes a lot of sense as the impact would be at a much lower velocity in many cases.

I don't think the dark material is from the area. The surface material is rather bright, and as we can see the sub material is also bright.

If it is ejecta from another recently formed crater, we should be able to find it.

Originally posted by eriktheawful
reply to post by wildespace

 

I think the impacts from like your picture our more round due to being high velocity impacts (IE orbital speeds). Where as the impact picture in my OP appears to be at a much lower velocity (sub-orbital speeds).

Sorry if I didn't make it clear, the crater in my image is the same as in your OP. I made sure I zeroed-in on the right one.




Here's a crop from another image, wms.lroc.asu.edu...


I have seen assymetrical dark ejecta in other craters, so this one doesn't appear unnatural to me. Still, you might be right and it might be an impact site of a man-made object or an ejecta boulder. I'm just pointing out that the crater is round in shape.

P.S. you might find this article useful, it looks at craters with similar features: history.nasa.gov... I think the consensus is the oblique trajectory of the impacting body.

reply to post by wildespace


I see it now!

Still a very fresh impact and interesting looking.

erik, this is a very interesting location and as it is on the nearside of the lunar surface I am wondering if you have surveyed the area with a telescope. If you have, did you notice anything unusual on the terrain surrounding the feature?

Originally posted by arianna
erik, this is a very interesting location and as it is on the nearside of the lunar surface I am wondering if you have surveyed the area with a telescope. If you have, did you notice anything unusual on the terrain surrounding the feature?

Yes I've looked at the moon quite a bit with my telescopes.

I've never seen anything unusual, just interesting large geological features and impact craters. Of course telescope resolution is no where near the resolution of things like the LROC.

Well, that's a neat crater with an interesting black ejecta pattern. But in actuality I scanned that picture for less than 5 minutes and come up with even more compelling images.



I'm surprised that the LRO supercomputer hasn't blurred it out.