Impacts on the Moon: analysis methods and size distribution of impactors

TL;DR

This paper develops and tests automated methods for detecting and analyzing lunar impact flashes, estimating impactor properties, and constructing size distributions, supported by recent observations and literature data.

Contribution

It introduces new automated analysis techniques for lunar impact flashes and presents the first impact event observed by the authors' telescope system.

Findings

Validated methods against confirmed impact events

Constructed meteoroid size frequency distribution over 20 years

Detected the first lunar impact event from their observatory

Abstract

We are preparing a telescope system to carry out a survey of detection and analysis of lunar impact flashes. In the framework of this project, here we present all necessary methods to automatically identify these luminous events, their lunar impact coordinates, the origin of the impacting meteoroids, as well as the estimation of their physical properties such as mass and size. We tested our methods against confirmed impact events and constructed the meteoroid size frequency distribution of impactors using literature data of the last 20 years. In addition, we present the first lunar impact event observed from the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur that was detected during the testing phase of our project.