Meteoroid impact on the Moon

Just recently, NASA found out, during an examination of video material, that a relatively large explosion took place on the Moon on 17th March 2013, caused by the impact of a meteoroid. This was an approximately 15 inches large and 88 pounds heavy chunk, which hit the Moon’s surface with 56,000 mph. The explosive power is equivalent to 5 tons of TNT. The flash of light which lit up during the impact in the »Mare Imbrium«, was so bright that it was visible with the naked eye from Earth.

Initially, 15 inches may not sound incredibly big or threatening. But one has to realize, it is the speed, which makes such an object so dangerous. In space travel, the so called micrometeoroids with the size of a few millimeters, can cause tremendous damage to spacecrafts.

There has to be an incredibly vast amount of space up there in space that all those scattered flying bodies (606,000 asteroids in the solar system alone) do not cause more damage. Let’s hope that we will continue to be spared. The Moon keeps calm …

3 Comments

  1. Bob Rawlinson, Burnley (England) | 19 July 2013

    I saw the event with the naked eye it appeared to be two half moons one behind the other with the rear one showing the top 1/3 really weird. I took a hand held photo but its not good enough to show the event.

  2. Chris Wheeldon | 1 July 2013

    This is very interesting, and your English is good, but there are several mistakes in the piece. E.g. ‘This was an approximately 15 inches large and 88 pounds heavy chunk…’ etc is not natural English (we’d say something like, ‘This was a chunk of material approximately 15″ across and weighing roughly 88lb/40kg, which hit the moon’s surface at 56,000mph.’ Another example: the plural of ‘spacecraft’ is ‘spacecraft’. Would you like a native speaker (and English teacher) to proof-read your blog, free?

    • Jörg & Pat | 2 July 2013

      Hi 🙂 thank you for your offer to help to improve the quality of our blog articles. Please contact us via e-mail (click on “Contact” on the buttom of this page) to discuss details. Best wishes from Jörg & Pat

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