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MARE IMBRIUM — For about a second early in the morning on March 17, anyone who happened to be looking contemplatively at the moon, even without a telescope, would have been able to see a massive explosion 10 times the size of any seen in the last decade.
The explosion was a relatively small meteoroid pounding into the surface of earth's satellite at 56,000 miles per hour. The 40 kg rock hit the surface of the moon with the power 5 tons of TNT.
NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has been monitoring the lunar surface for sights of meteor strikes for the last eight years, but this is nothing like they have seen before.
There were also a number of meteor events recorded on earth at the same time, which could very well be related.
"On the night of March 17, NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on earth," said Bill Cooke with MEO. "These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between earth and the asteroid belt."
"My working hypothesis is that the two events are related, and that this constitutes a short duration cluster of material encountered by the earth-moon system."
Related:
Twin NASA spacecraft to crash into moon
After nearly a year circling the moon, NASA's Ebb and Flow will meet their demise when they crash – on purpose – into the lunar surface.The event could lead to some pretty interesting lunar science. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will take a peek at the resulting crater the next time it passes over the impact site in Mare Imbrium. That will help scientists compare the actual size and shape of the damage to their own models.
According to a NASA release, the U.S. Space Exploration Policy calls for astronauts to be living on the moon for extended stays, so being able to predict and understand lunar meteoroid strikes is very important. Different times of year and times of day result in different likelihoods of strikes, meaning that certain times would be off limits to rovers and humans.
"We'll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the earth-moon system passes through the same region of space," Cooke said. "Meanwhile, our analysis of the March 17th event continues."
