Watch the moment a meteorite hit the MOON: Incredible footage shows the flash as the crater forms
Watch the moment a meteorite hit the MOON: Incredible footage shows a huge flare as the crater formed
- Japanese astronomer captures likely ‘lunar flare’ with telephoto lens
- Daichi Fuji took the picture just after 8pm from his home in Hiratsuka City.
- He claims that the object crashed into the surface near the lunar crater Ideler L.
Incredible footage shows the moment a meteorite crashed into the moon, leaving a crater on its surface.
A huge flash of light was recorded by a Japanese astronomer on February 23rd in what has been described as a likely “lunar impact flash”.
Daichi Fujii, head of the astronomy department at the Hiratsuka City Museum, took this image just after 20:15 (11:15 GMT) from his home in Hiratsuka. Japan.
He tweeted: “I was able to catch the biggest lunar impact flash in my sighting history!
“At the time of observation, there was not a single artificial satellite above the lunar surface, and judging by the way it shines, it is very likely that this is a flash of a lunar impact.”
Daichi Fuji took the picture around 20:15 (11:15 GMT) from his home in Hiratsuka, Japan.
Mr. Fujii said the object appears to have landed near the Ideler L crater, slightly northwest of the lunar crater Pitiscus.
Because the light captured by his telephoto lens was so bright, he claimed that “the crater formed is large” and “the grooves are clearly visible.”
However, meteors and fireballs are not visible because the Moon has no atmosphere, he added, but “it glows” when the crater forms.
He continued, “At that time, the height of the moon was only seven degrees, and I was glad that I could hold out until the last minute.”
MailOnline has reached out to the European Space Agency and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for additional comment.
According to Bill Cook, head of NASA’s Meteor Investigation Division at the NASA Space Flight Center.
Last year he told living science: “That’s about 33,000 meteoroids a year.
“Despite their small size, each of these ping-pong ball-sized rocks hits the surface with the force of 7 pounds (3.2 kg) of dynamite.”
Mr. Fuji claims that the object crashed into the surface of the moon near the Ideler L crater.
Just over a week before Mr. Fuji was shot, another meteoroid also created a shooting star that could be seen in southern England and Wales, as well as parts of France.
The rock, named 2023 CX1, entered the atmosphere about two miles off the coast of France at 3 a.m., creating a fireball as it broke into small pieces that fell into the sea.
It was only the seventh successful prediction of an asteroid impact, which the European Space Agency says is “a sign of rapid progress in global asteroid detection capabilities.”
However, the largest known lunar impact is believed to have occurred Around 4.3 billion years ago near its south pole.
The massive impact is said to have sent a huge plume of heat through the lunar interior.