Comment by KnightOfWords on 14/09/2023 at 06:54 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Something I've been wondering about is the Tycho impact on the Moon. This happened in the age of the dinosaurs but they were terribly lax in their record keeping.

How bright would have been Earth? How long would it have taken to cool and for how long would it have visibly glowed? Would debris have kicked off global meteor showers on Earth? Would some of the ejecta been large enough to punch through our atmosphere and cause real damage?

Replies

Comment by mfb- at 14/09/2023 at 17:59 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

• Very* bright, and probably visible for a while if not in sunlight. We saw an impact[1] during a lunar eclipse in 2019. While that was difficult to see with the naked eye, it was just a ~10 kg object. The source of the Tycho crator had billions of times more energy.

1: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-a-first-earthlings-spot-a-meteor-strike-the-eclipse-darkened-moon/