A space rock slammed into the moon just days ago, lighting up at the surface so brightly, it was briefly visible from Earth through telescopes.
Daichi Fujii, curator at Hiratsuka City Museum in Japan, recorded the impact. Fujii, who started looking for lunar impact flashes in 2011, keeps an eye fixed on the moon through several 8-inch aperture telescopes, mostly based in Hiratsuka, about midway between Tokyo and Mount Fuji. What makes this new sighting astounding is that it was the second flash he had captured hitting the moon since last Thursday.
The latest impact happened Nov. 1 near Oceanus Procellarum, a large, dark lava plain whose name means Ocean of Storms. The event followed a bright burst just two days earlier near the Gassendi Crater. Each blink of light lasted a mere fraction of a second, but they punctuated strikes from rocks whizzing at about 60,000 mph, according to Fujii, who posted videos of the flashes on X.
These events, which can be watched below, serve as a reminder that though the moon may seem immutable from a 240,000-mile distance, its surface is frequently changing, pocked by countless craters.
“In the near future, the lunar environment will change significantly due to private space business, including an increase in space debris and artificial impact flashes in cislunar space,” Fujii told Mashable. “I wish to document the current, natural lunar environment before these changes occur.”
SEE ALSO:
NASA’s prospective boss posts 2,000 words on X. It’s damage control.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
On Earth, about 73,000 pounds of space dust and rock rain down on the planet every day. Almost all of that debris burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere. But the moon, with a barely there exosphere, has no such protection. Even pebbles hit its surface at ultra-high speeds, from 45,000 to 160,000 mph. At that speed, a 10-pound rock, about the weight of a light bowling ball, could blast out a crater 30 feet wide and lift more than 80 tons of moondust.
Even chunks just a few feet wide can cause immense damage when they fall to Earth. NASA has previously estimated that a 100 to 170-foot-wide asteroid could level a small city. In 2013, a 60-foot meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring 1,600 people.
Mashable Light Speed
Astronomers watch these lunar impacts to learn how often — and how hard — space rocks hit. This helps scientists predict risks to spacecraft because large meteors could destroy satellites or, perhaps in the future, lunar outposts. Though Earth’s atmosphere lets researchers measure small meteors with radar, they need a giant target area, like the moon’s surface, to study the bigger ones. Fujii calls the moon an efficient “meteoroid detector.”
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
The Earth and moon are both subject to comet debris, which result in meteor showers, but how these events affect the two bodies differs.
“On Earth these showers are capable of producing spectacular celestial fireworks displays, delighting the public,” according to NASA. “On the airless moon, however, these showers are swarms of high energy projectiles, producing fireworks only when they strike the surface with tremendous force.”
Other telescopes in Japan observed the same bursts as Fujii from different angles, which supports that these were indeed meteoroid impacts rather than other occurrences, such as optical artifacts or cosmic ray interference, that also can cause quick flashes.
Daichi Fujii’s observation setup includes several 8-inch aperture telescopes, mostly based in Hiratsuka, Japan.
Credit: Daichi Fujii
The origins of these two space rocks are unknown, but their timing coincides with the annual Northern and Southern Taurids meteor showers, which both peak in November. The Taurids, a group of pebble-sized fragments from the Comet Encke, are having a so-called “swarm year,” meaning Earth is passing through a region of space with a particularly high volume of comet debris.
Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.
Even with continuous monitoring, which Fujii began doing five years ago, he still only records one lunar impact flash every few dozen hours of observations. The thin crescent moon, which provides the large dark area needed for these observations, is only visible during dusk or dawn, he said.
To date, he’s only seen about 60, so, even after all this time, he still gets a thrill out of finding one — or, in this case, two.
“Capturing a bright flash always brings a huge sense of excitement,” he said.
