NASA Artemis II astronauts observed a breathtaking sight marked by meteorites impacting the moon’s rugged surface during their historic moon flight.
Mission commander Reid Wiseman and crew member Jeremy Hansen reported seeing “pinpricks of light” on the moon’s surface, providing rare real-time data for scientists on Earth.
Artemis II documented a total of six meteorite impacts during a seven-hour observation window.
“I don’t know if I expected the crew to see anything on this mission, so you probably saw the surprise and shock on my face,” said Kelsey Young, the mission’s chief of lunar science.
According to Young, this is a huge milestone to witness these rarely seen consequences.
The Houston team’s “audible cries of delight” underscore the importance of human observers who can identify these events as they happen.
The phenomenon is “something we haven’t seen very often,” the mission’s backup astronaut Jenni Gibbons said AFP.
“They really made science a high priority for us, so the fact that they saw four or five of them was just remarkable.”
Canadian crew member Hansen called these attacks a “pinprick of light.” “I suspect there were many more.”
“I would say they lasted in a millisecond, like the fastest shutter on a camera can open and close,” added Wiseman, who said the flashes were “white to bluish white.”
Scientists are currently working to correlate the astronauts’ visual reports with data from satellites orbiting the moon. This helps verify the accuracy of remote sensing equipment and improves our understanding of the “daily flow” of space debris.
According to Bruce Betts, chief scientist at the Planetary Society, analyzing the brightness and duration of flashes will help scientists understand the frequency of the impact.
