Imagine that an asteroid is approaching the Moon. While far away from the Moon it is moving at 1 km/s, but as it approaches the Moon, it will accelerate due to the Moon’s gravity. The asteroid has a mass of 1012 kg. The Moon has a mass of 7.35x1022 kg and a radius of 1737 km.
A) How fast will the asteroid be moving when it hits the surface of the Moon?
B) How much kinetic energy will be released by the impact?
C) If 10% of the impact energy is released as radiation, what would be the observed flux at the Earth (a distance of 384,000 km away)?
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