Published in

Oxford University Press, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1(454), p. 344-352, 2015

DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv1921

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Lunar impact flashes from Geminids: analysis of luminous efficiencies and the flux of large meteoroids on Earth

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We analyse lunar impact flashes recorded by our team during runs in December 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2014. In total, 12 impact flashes with magnitudes ranging between 7.1 and 9.3 in V band were identified. From these, nine events could be linked to the Geminid stream. Using these observations, the ratio of luminous energy emitted in the flashes with respect to the kinetic energy of the impactors for meteoroids of the Geminid stream is estimated. By making use of the known Geminids meteoroid flux on Earth we found this ratio to be 2.1 × 10−3 on average. We compare this luminous efficiency with other estimations derived in the past for other meteoroid streams and also compare it with other estimations that we present here for the first time by making use of crater diameter measurements. We think that the luminous efficiency has to be revised downwards, not upwards, at least for sporadic impacts. This implies an increase in the influx of kilogram-sized and larger bodies on Earth that has been derived thus far through the lunar impact flash monitoring technique.