Analysis of Moon impact flashes detected during the 2012 and 2013 Perseids

¹ Departamento de Física Atómica, Molecular y NuclearFacultad de Física, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain
e-mail: jmmadiedo@gmail.com
² Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Apt. 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
⁴ Observatorio Astronómico de La Hita, La Puebla de Almoradiel, 45071 Toledo, Spain

Received: 13 January 2015
Accepted: 11 March 2015

Abstract

We present the results of our Moon impact flash detection campaigns performed around the maximum activity period of the Perseid meteor shower in 2012 and 2013. Just one flash produced by a Perseid meteoroid was detected in 2012 because of very unfavorable geometric conditions, but 12 flashes were confirmed in 2013. The visual magnitude of the flashes ranged between 6.6 and 9.3. A luminous efficiency of 1.8 × 10^-3 has been estimated for meteoroids from this stream. According to this value, impactor masses would range between 1.9 and 190 g. In addition, we propose a criterion for establishing, from a statistical point of view, the likely origin of impact flashes recorded on the lunar surface.