A meteorite smashed into the moon's surface at 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 kilometers per hour) while our lunar neighbor was in total eclipse in January, a new report reveals. Observers saw a flash during the Jan. 20 to 21 eclipse , when the object collided with the moon and carved out a crater about 10 to 15 meters (33 to 50 feet) in diameter. It was traveling fast enough to have been able to cross the United States in just a few minutes, but, luckily for Earth, it slammed into the moon instead. Astronomers measured a 0.28-second flash from the impact, the first ever filmed during a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses happen when the moon passes into the Earth's shadow during its normal orbit around our planet. The moon turns a reddish or orange color, because only sunlight around the edges of Earth's shadow can reach the moon's surface. Related: Record Meteorite Crash on Moon Is Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever "Something inside of me told me that this time would be the time," Jose Maria Madiedo, an astrophysicist at the University of Huelva in Spain and lead author on the new study, said in a statement . Madiedo and fellow astrophysicist Jose Ortiz, of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, caught the flash on video using the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS). MIDAS is a network of eight telescopes in southern Spain that monitors the moon's surface. MIDAS monitored the flash in different wavelengths, revealing more information about the space rock that hit the moon. Scientists estimated the rock was about 45 kg (100 lbs.) in mass and roughly 30 to 60 centimeters (1 foot to 2 feet) across. After the impactor crashed into the surface, the debris it generated had an estimated peak temperature that was about as hot as the surface of the sun — about 9,750 degrees Fahrenheit (5,400 degrees Celsius). Related: Amazing Photos of the 2019 Super Blood Wolf Moon! A meteorite hit the moon during a total lunar eclipse in January 2019, seen here as a bright flash. (Image credit: J. M. Madiedo/MIDAS) Researchers said in the statement that the moon is hit by small rocks more often than Earth because it has only a tenuous atmosphere, while Earth's is thick enough for many space rocks to burn up before they can reach the surface. The scientists added that observing the flash was especially valuable because they cannot duplicate it on our own planet. "It would be impossible to reproduce these high-speed collisions in a lab on Earth. Observing flashes is a great way to test our ideas on exactly what happens when a meteorite collides with the moon," Madiedo said. The scientists added that knowing the rate of lunar collisions will be especially important in the protection of the safety of astronauts, who may venture back to the surface of the moon as soon as 2024 . The new research was detailed April 27 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.<doc-sep>On January 19, 2019, a lunar eclipse dazzled observers throughout the Americas (and a sliver of Africa and Europe). After the event, some who had watched it reported seeing a very brief flash. Two days later as buzz began to build about the eclipse, University of Oxford astronomer Chris Lintott tweeted, "If you have footage of the lunar eclipse at 4.41 GMT check your image carefully...There might have been an impact during the eclipse!" Soon, high-quality still images of the impact began to emerge. Later, some video did as well. Now, four Spanish scientists have published a detailed analysis of the impact in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that estimates the size of the object, its origin, and the impact it left on the lunar surface. They based their estimates on observations made by five f/10 Schmidt–Cassegrain telescopes in Seville, Spain. Clear weather afforded the telescope an uninterrupted view of the eclipse during the event's totality. "This is the first impact flash unambiguously recorded on the Moon during a lunar eclipse and discussed in the scientific literature," the authors write. The night of the lunar eclipse in early 2019 did not coincide with any major meteor showers on Earth, and based upon their analysis, the Spanish scientists said they are 99 percent sure the impact was associated with a random or "sporadic" meteoroid—the same kind of meteors that people on Earth see in the night sky when there are no active meteor showers. Advertisement The meteoroid strike created only a brief flash, lasting just 0.28 seconds, and reached a peak magnitude of 4.2, about the same brightness as Jupiter's moon Ganymede as seen from Earth. Based on various measurements and inferences, the scientists estimated that the impactor had a mass of 45kg and left a crater with a diameter of 10 to 15 meters across on the Moon. This should be observable with a spacecraft such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the Moon since 2009. Astronomers, of course, have observed many impacts on the Moon over its history—indeed, these Spanish scientists are part of the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System, or MIDAS, created to make just these kinds of observations. These impacts can be fairly bright because the Moon lacks an atmosphere, and so some strikes hit the lunar surface traveling as fast as 30km/s, releasing a flash of light and heat that can be seen from Earth. (The 2019 lunar eclipse impact was estimated to have a velocity of 17km/s). Before NASA sends humans to the Moon, perhaps permanently to a surface station, it is a good idea for us to have a better handle on how common meteoroid strikes are on the surface. In fact, NASA concluded in 2016 that the rate of meteoroid impacts was higher than scientists originally believed.<doc-sep>A new study suggests that the formation of Earth's Moon may have stemmed from a giant space rock that hit our planet nearly 4.5 billion years ago, while it was still forming. The research, published in the scientific journal Nature, suggests that the previous explanation, two protoplanets colliding (including one known as Theia), may not be entirely correct. "Here we propose that a giant, solid impactor hit the proto-Earth while it was covered with a magma ocean, under the conventional collision conditions," the researchers wrote in the study's abstract. CHINA PLANS TO BUILD A BASE NEAR THE MOON'S SOUTH POLE There has been no shortage of theories on how the Moon formed over the years, including the aforementioned protoplanet collision. But it's the possibility of magma from the still-nascent Earth that has never been pondered before. "Prior work on lunar formation basically ignored the effect of the magma ocean," the study's lead author, Natsuki Hosono, told Space.com in an interview. "Our research concluded that the magma ocean is one of the most important things for the moon-forming giant impact." "These calculations demonstrate that, because of the large difference in shock heating between silicate melts and solids (rocks), a substantial fraction of the ejected, Moon-forming material is derived from the magma ocean, even in a highly oblique collision." the study abstract added. If the two protoplanets did collide, then the Moon should be made up of approximately 60 percent of Theia's material, according to computer models that have run the "Giant Impact Hypothesis" scenario, Space.com added. However, rock samples that have been collected of the lunar surface show the Moon is strikingly similar to the Earth. In January, researchers described a chunk of Earth that could be 4.1 billion years old and has been described as the planet's "oldest rock" was found and dug up on the Moon by Apollo astronauts. Last month, NASA announced it had chosen nine teams, giving them a total of $8 million, to help study lunar samples collected during the Apollo space missions for the first time in an effort to better understand the Moon, as well as help prepare for future space exploration. The Moon has been a source of fascination for humanity for eons and since the Apollo space missions of the mid-20th-century, humanity's knowledge about our celestial satellite has increased significantly. Scientists recently learned that the Moon loses water when meteoroids smack its surface, according to a study published in March. NASA's ARTEMIS mission also revealed that solar winds greatly impact the lunar surface and expose it to radiation from the Sun, leaving scars on the surface, akin to a "sunburn," due to the Moon's weak magnetic field. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<doc-sep>
When the moon went dark on January 21, 2019, it got smacked in the face by a rock traveling 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h). On January 21, 2019, the full moon passed entirely into Earth's shadow and, well, got smacked in the face pretty hard. Seconds after the total phase of that night's lunar eclipse began, a meteorite slammed into the moon's surface, causing a brief but bright flash of light visible to amateur astronomers across the Northern Hemisphere. Professional astronomers were watching too — and now, after months of studying impact footage taken by a fleet of eight telescopes in southern Spain, a team of researchers thinks they know just how hard the moon got smacked, and what did the smacking. [Crash! 10 Biggest Impact Craters on Earth] According to a new study published April 30 in the journal Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society, the object that hit the moon on January 21 was likely a rogue meteoroid measuring just 1 to 2 feet in diameter (30 to 60 centimeters) and traveling at a staggering 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h). This wee, speedy rock likely created a fresh lunar crater measuring some 50 feet (15 meters) across. The team reached these estimates after studying the brief impact flash — which lasted only 0.28 seconds — with the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System, or MIDAS telescopes. By studying the flash in several different wavelengths of light, the researchers estimated the impact's temperature to be about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,400 degrees Celsius), roughly the same temperature as the surface of the sun. Based on the temperature and duration of the flash, the team then calculated the speed of the impactor, its size and weight (about 100 lbs. or 45 kilograms) and the size of the crater it created. The scientists also estimated that the energy of the blast was equivalent to detonating about 1.65 tons of TNT (1500 kg) on our nearest cosmic neighbor. These numbers are impressive, but not unusual According to a 2016 study in the journal Nature, the moon's pocked and cracked surface acquires about 140 new craters measuring at least 33 feet (10 meters) across every year. Because the moon has no atmosphere, even the smallest space rocks can make a significant impact on the lunar surface. Usually, however, conditions are too bright for astronomers to see those impacts. Catching a lunar impact in the midst of a total lunar eclipse is a rare event for researchers like the MIDAS team, who specialize in studying these frequent if unpredictable events. Better understanding lunar impacts could help safeguard the next wave of astronauts set to return to the moon in the next decade, the researchers wrote in the study. Originally published on Live Science.