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New Crater On Moon Caught On Video

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the to-the-moon-alice dept.

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.'"

18 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    wait, I don't understand... how many joules are in a library of congress?

    1. Re:Obligatory by igny · · Score: 4, Funny

      Everyone knows that energy is calculated in BigMacs (229 of delicious kcal). That explosion was mere 17,743 BigMacs.

      --
      In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
  2. Where's the sound? by SamMichaels · · Score: 4, Funny

    When it first loaded I thought, "where's the damn sound"?

    Then I saw it was a gif...and thought, "why is it an animated picture and not a video with sound?"

    Then I realized I needed more caffeine. Oops.

    1. Re:Where's the sound? by digitalchinky · · Score: 5, Funny

      Where is the kaboom? There was meant to be an earth shattering kaboom....

  3. Re:Conspiracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You fool. They didn't fake the moon landing. They didn't have to. They travel there on a daily basis with technology reverse engineered from the Roswell crash. They are preparing us for additional "meteor" strikes which will actually be missiles designed to knock out secret alien and ex-soviet moon bases!

  4. Colony on the moon by vldragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

    --
    Eating the brains of your enemies does not make you smarter. But it's still fun.
    1. Re:Colony on the moon by FuturePastNow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think a meteorite striking a lunar base would be like shooting at an ant crawling on the side of a barn. From a mile away. With your eyes closed. Of course, the thing about random chance is that it's bound to happen eventually, but I don't think any astronauts will lose sleep over it.

      --
      Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
  5. Terrorists on the moon? by xkr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which terrorist group is NASA blaming ?

    --
    I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
  6. "that's about the same as 4 tons of TNT" by zegebbers · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's all well and good, but how many football fields was the impact?

    --
    Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
  7. and in news just to hand... by Audent · · Score: 5, Funny

    NASA has released a video clip of its server being struck with 17 billion hits all at the same time.

    "That's about the same as 4 tons of TNT, or an entire Slashdot community" says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL.

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
  8. Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... by packetmon · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.
    --
    Infiltrated dot Net
    1. Re:Do it like they do on the Discovery channel... by NereusRen · · Score: 4, Informative
      Imagine if what hit the moon hit a major city...
      That small of an object (only 10 inches diameter?) would burn up in our atmosphere. It only struck so hard on the moon because there's nothing slowing it down before it hits the surface. I went over to the trusty Asteroid Impact Simulator for a quick comparison. The smallest size you can select is 1 meter in diameter, but here's what it has to say about a fairly average 1m projectile "hitting" earth:

              Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.27 x 10^11 Joules = 0.54 x 10-4 MegaTons TNT [note: the one that hit the moon only had 1.7 x 10^10 Joules of energy... less than one tenth of this hypothetical.]
              The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is less than 1 month.
              The projectile bursts into a cloud of fragments at an altitude of 49200 meters
              No crater is formed, although large fragments may strike the surface.

      We only need to be worried about meteors a few orders of magnitude larger.

      (Hell, TFA even explained that it would burn up, but I guess I can't expect anyone around here to know that...)
  9. Re:So what are the odds by Gabrill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One Word: Atmosphere. It's why the Earth doesn't look like the Moon.

    --
    Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
  10. Re:So what are the odds by Eideewt · · Score: 4, Funny

    We should surround the Earth with a protective blanket of some sort to protect ourselves from such an event! Of course, it would need to be transparent and not inhibit our movement. I wonder if we could use gases for that purpose.

  11. Sagan's account by jmichaelg · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.

    1. Re:Sagan's account by canatech · · Score: 5, Informative

      Try this -

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno_(crate r)

    2. Re:Sagan's account by Rimbo · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I think the obvious answer is that getting from here

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


      to here

      the Bible was telling them that the earth and heavens were unchanged since Creation and would remain unchanged forever after


      is a non sequitur... in context, the latter does not necessarily follow from the former.
  12. "Caught on Video" by GhaleonStrife · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Caught on Video" makes it sound like something dirty was happening. "Hot meteorite on Moon action! All caught on video!"