LOCATIONS OF NEW CRATERS PRODUCED BY OBSERVED LUNAR IMPACTS

The Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) has been observing lunar flashes which may produce impact craters detectable by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). There have been over 300 flashes observed in an 8+ year time span of routine observations from MSFC and one new crater has been correlated with a flash recorded in March of 2013. Using ArcMap’s tools to georeference lunar images of the impact flashes caused by meteoroids impacting the Moon’s surface we are able to determine the selenographic latitude and longitude of each impact crater. Georeferencing associates the images of the impact flashes with a lunar base map by assigning control points that correlate distinguishing features on both the Moon image and the base map. The coordinates that are obtained from my work will be sent to researchers using LRO, which is a satellite currently in orbit around the Moon. This data will guide LRO to search for additional and/or new impact craters.