Google+ SpaceTravelFoundation: Bright explosion ever observed on the Moon

May 19, 2013

Bright explosion ever observed on the Moon

Dear followers,

+NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions due to meteorites hitting the lunar surface. This phenomenon is called "Lunar meteor showers"; and it have turned out to be more common than anyone expected. Actually hundreds of impacts are detected every year.

Credit: Nasa

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."

Dear follower, you should know that anyone looking at the Moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion; no telescope required.

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