Sometimes, above us, beyond the sky, in space, a multitude of events worthy of attention take place that tend to go unnoticed, basically because not all of us have tools such as telescopes to see them.
But luckily, there are astronomers who are practically 24 hours a day observing the space and, with it, a series of events that they can end up sharing with the rest, as has just happened now.
A Japanese astronomer has captured the impact of a meteorite on the Moon, causing a brief flash on the night side of our satellite.
Daichi Fujii, curator of the Hiratsuka City Museum, has recorded this event using high-tech cameras to monitor the Moon. The day of the impact meteorite It was on February 23, and appears to have struck near Ideler L crater, slightly northwest of Pitiscus crater.
According to reports from Space, meteorites travel on average at 48,280 km/h, which is the same as 13.4 km/s.
These high-velocity impacts generate great heat and form craters, which is why they produce a bright flash of light visible by certain telescopes. With this, we can see these lunar impacts from Earth.
These events are common, but not captured by cameras
The astronomers They believe that this newly created crater on the Moon could be around 12 m in diameter and could be imaged by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or India’s Chandrayaan 2 lunar probe.
Although it is quite common for meteorites to hit Earth every day, most of them disintegrate on contact with the atmosphere.
Since the Moon has only a very thin exosphere, meteorites hit the surface causing large craters.
Capturing these moments also has scientific value as it helps astronomers and scientists to understand the rate of impacts on the lunar surface.