Watch Two Meteorites Hit the Moon!

Our nearest celestial neighbor just treated us to a light show. A sharp-eyed telescope system in Spain spotted a pair of meteorite impacts on the moon in mid-July, occurring just 24 hours apart — and you can even watch video of the event online.

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently posted footage of the pair of flashes that occurred on July 17 and July 18. Although the flashes were detected from Earth, the original meteoroids — fragments of the midsummer Alpha Capricornids meteor shower — were probably each only the size of a walnut, researchers said.

The moon received these lumps from space while passing through the dusty tail of Comet 169P/NEAT, the ESA said in a statement released with the footage.

"For at least a thousand years, people have claimed to witness short-lived phenomena occurring on the face of the moon," ESA officials said in the statement. "By definition, these transient flashes are hard to study, and determining their cause remains a challenge.

"For this reason, scientists are studying these 'transient lunar phenomena' with great interest, not only for what they can tell us about the moon and its history, but also [for what they can tell us] about Earth and its future," the officials added.

The new images come courtesy of the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS), which is installed on three observatories across Spain. The system is endowed with high-resolution CCD video cameras designed to pick up these subtle flashes of light. It's even easier to spot these flashes if they happen during full lunar eclipses, such as the one that just occurred on July 27.

Researchers said that while the flashes are interesting in and of themselves, the events also help us learn more about meteorite impacts on other locations in the solar system. 

"By studying meteoroids on the moon, we can determine how many rocks impact it and how often, and from this we can infer the chance of impacts on Earth," Jose Maria Madiedo, a member of MIDAS and a meteorite researcher at the University of Huelva in Spain, said in the statement.

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace