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J.L. Ortiz, F.J. Aceituno, P. Santos-Sanz (Inst. Astrofisica Andalucia, CSIC), J.A. Quesada (Calar Alto Observatory, retired.)
In November 2004 the lunar phase was adequate to observe lunar impact flashes at the time of the Leonid meteor shower, as it was the case in 1999 and 2001, because a large number of meteoroidal impacts were expected to hit the night part of the Moon visible from Earth. We again arranged a special multisite observing campaign with telescopes aiming at the night part of the Moon in order to detect and analyze such flashes. In this paper we report our unambiguous detections, our computations of the energy released in each impact, their locations on the Moon and possible inferences on crater sizes. Those fresh craters might perhaps be observable from SMART-1. Some implications on Leonid meteor fluxes on Earth and size distribution of the particles are also discussed.
This research was supported by the spanish AYA-2002-0382 project. FEDER funds are also acknowledged.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.