New Crater On Moon Caught On Video

From A Far Away Land writes "NASA has released a video clip of a meteorite striking the surface of the Moon. From the article: 'On May 2, 2006, a meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy -- that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL.'"

Comments

Colony on the moon

[vldragon]

If a mere 10 inch meteor can create a 4 ton explosion then I don't think it would ever be a good idea to try to put a colony on the moon. If this kind of thing happens often, and the say it does, there would have to be a whole lot of protection for any structure we put on the moon. Or develope shields...

Do it like they do on the Discovery channel...

[packetmon]

I've seen a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the possibility of a meteorite hitting earth pretty hard. Come to think of it, last week a meteorite struck finland. What's interesting is the United States Air Force has the following:

6.7 Asteroid Mitigation System
Brief Description
The asteroid mitigation system protects the Earth/Moon system from earth-crossing objects (ECO) by either deflecting or fragmenting ECO they no longer pose a threat. Deflection could be accomplished using nuclear explosive devices.

Capabilities
Deflects or destroys objects in space having the size and trajectory to threaten the Earth/Moon system An Operational Analysis for Air Force 2025: An Application of Value-Focused Thinking to Future Air and Space Capabilities (page 135)

Scientist have been trying to figure out when something big will hit. Imagine if what hit the moon hit a major city... I'd definitely rather see my tax dollars spent on a project to deter meteorites as opposed to seeing money thrown around with people crying "Al Qaeda" anytime.

Sagan's account

[jmichaelg]

Carl Sagan's documentary Cosmos, described an event that happened in the middle ages. Some monks were sitting outside one evening when a meteoroid hit the moon and caused a naked-eye visible fireball. Evidently the event lasted long enough for the entire monastary to see it. If this current one only lasted half a second, the one Sagan described must have been huge. Problem was that the event flew straight in the face of Psalm 119 which reads:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and always shall be: for ever and ever. Amen.

The significance for the monks was that the Bible was telling them that the earth and heavens were unchanged since Creation and would remain unchanged forever after. Here was evidence that what their faith was telling them wasn't true. Sagan said the event caused quite a bit of problems for the monastery as the monks tried to reconcile their faith and reality.

If anyone knows anything more about the event Sagan was talking about, I'd really like to hear it. I've often wondered if the crater it left has been identified.