Small Space Rock Spotted Hitting the Moon

Add one more crater to the already beat-up Moon. Astronomers have recorded a tiny blip northwest of Mare Imbrium, a flash caused by a meteoroid hit within the “Sea of Showers.”

While such impacts are not uncommon, it was only in 1999 that a meteoroid hit was first recorded as it took place. This new observation of a run-in between Moon and meteoroid was recorded on Nov. 7, spotted by Robert Suggs, Space Environment team lead in the Natural Environments Branch of the Marshall Center’s Engineering Directorate in Huntsville, Alabama.

The rock is estimated to have been about 4-5 inches (12 centimeters) in diameter and to have left a crater 10 feet wide and 1.3 feet deep (3 meters by 0.4 meters).

The flash "was about as bright as a 7th magnitude star," Suggs said. That's dimmer than the faintest star a person can see with the unaided eye.
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