The Moon is the living reflection that space is a wild place, with its hundreds of thousands of craters that give it the characteristic appearance to which we are accustomed. Throughout the eons since the natural satellite formed and became trapped in the Earth’s gravitational field, the Moon has been the target of collisions with meteorites of various sizes and origins.
This is a fact that is well-known thanks to lunar craters, however, very rarely does one have the opportunity to observe the exact moment in which a meteorite hits the lunar surface. But thanks to technology and the fact that more astronomers are joining the investigation of the heavens every day, we can now see the collision of a meteorite against the Moon.
Meteorite Collides With the Moon
Japanese astronomer Daichi Fujii, who is curator of the Hiratsuka City Museum, is in charge of monitoring the skies with cameras configured to monitor Earth’s natural satellite. In one of his observations, Fujii detected an unusual flash coming from a certain region of the Moon and soon realized that he had managed to record in real-time the collision of a meteorite with the lunar surface.
“I was able to capture the largest lunar impact flash in my observing history!” celebrates the Japanese astronomer on his official Twitter account. “This is an image of the lunar impact flash that appeared at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, taken from my home in Hiratsuka,” the tweet continues.
Fujii explains that it was a big flash, which he can see in the bottom right of his original video. The light point continues to flashlight for more than a second even though the video is recorded in real-time and without alteration of speed. The astronomer calculates that the crater formed by this new collision could be around ten meters. It is expected that it can later be photographed by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which currently flies in the satellite’s orbit.
私の観測史上最大の月面衝突閃光を捉えることができました！2023年2月23日20時14分30.8秒に出現した月面衝突閃光を、平塚の自宅から撮影した様子です（実際の速度で再生）。なんと1秒以上も光り続ける巨大閃光でした。月は大気がないため流星や火球は見られず、クレーターができる瞬間に光ります。 pic.twitter.com/Bi2JhQa9Q0
— 藤井大地 (@dfuji1) February 24, 2023
Why Do Meteorites Collide With the Moon and Not the Earth?
The Earth is a complex planet from the depths of its core to its last layer of atmosphere. It is thanks to the latter that medium-sized meteorites do not threaten our planet, since if any of these objects come directly towards us, they would first have an interaction with the outermost layers of the atmosphere where they are They dissolve thanks to friction with gases.
But the story of the Moon is completely different since it completely lacks an atmosphere to protect it from encounters with space rocks. It is for this reason that our natural satellite is marked by thousands of circular reliefs that speak of a wild past and its encounters with different meteorites, as it moves alongside the Earth through space.
This story was written in Spanish by Alejandra Martinez in Cultura Colectiva.
