In September 2013 a meteor with a mass of ~100s of kilograms hit the moon at 17 kilometers per *second*, producing a flash of light that lasted over 8 seconds: visible from Earth!
This is raw footage of the event, and you're gonna want to see next post to see the crater it made
This is raw footage of the event, and you're gonna want to see next post to see the crater it made
The Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter, in orbit around the Moon, looked at before and after images of the impact site and guess what, they found a new crater 34 meters (112 feet) in diameter, with a giant splat of material around the area!
h/t @NASAMoon for informing about this!
h/t @NASAMoon for informing about this!
You can read more here (not so technical): http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/810
Or here (the science paper by the people who saw the impact, quite technical): https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/439/3/2364/1086979#19662109
Or here (the science paper by the people who saw the impact, quite technical): https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/439/3/2364/1086979#19662109
Such a meteor would have burned up in Earth's atmosphere, by the way. The Moon has no atmosphere for these things to burn up in. Fun fact, my first ever research project was to use telescopes to look for flashes (didn't witness any, so had to use archive data, still fun though!)