Nasa Team Sees Explosion On Moon

Saw this on the BBC News Website today,

Nasa Team Sees Explosion On Moon, BBC News - Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 10:35 GMT

Nasa scientists have witnessed a rare explosion on the Moon, caused by a "meteoroid" slamming into it.

The blast was equal in energy to about 70kg of TNT and was seen near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains).

At first I thought, yikes! The Chinese have got their earlier than there letting on and have decided to play silly beggars up there...

Then, after a sip of my tea, rational thought took over and bought me back down to earth. This is a great find, not everyday you find a large object slamming into the side of the moon.

Pictures aren't great, but I'm sure we'll get better ones in the next 48 hours.

- edited to complete post, my finger slipped from "preview" to "post new", doh.

[edit on 3/1/2006 by FactoryLad]

Cool beans. Just goes to show that stuff still happens up there. I'm confused though - did they say 3 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep? Because, well, I'm amazed that they saw that then! That's pretty tiny.

Sure is dangerous outside of our safe little atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Space isn't easy and never will be for us as humans who evolved to live on this nice little world. I also find it amuzing that we go to space mostly to look back down at our rock or beam around communications on our rock.

I'd be surprised if we ever really do much more than struggle to colonize space and fail. At least in the near future (100 years).

better the moon then the eart, I allways ay... unless I start living on the moon

Perhaps it was a Star Wars test firing.
Why does it look metallic?

Originally posted by siriuslyone
Perhaps it was a Star Wars test firing.
Why does it look metallic?

I highly, highly doubt that. There are no such satellites even in orbit. And even if there were, the US would not keep it secret. It's policies are based on what are called "realism" - the idea that countries in power stay in power by means of displaying and using power. It's a very aggressive stance, and keeps other countries at bay with fear of force, rather than actual force itself.

So if the US did have such a weapon system in orbit, they would show it off to all of their potential opponents that "hey, you know, if you try anything, we'll catch you".

Problems with this line of thinking is that the enemy may then go "Okay, but what if we do this..?" - which can lead to cold-war type scenarios of buildups and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).

I'm curious if Nasa was able to get any in depth information regarding the hollow moon theory from this explosion.i remember reading how in may 13, 1972 a large meteor struck the moon. they say it was equalivant to 200 hundred tons of tnt.
The scientists said that none of the shock waves that were sent to the interior of the moon returned.

Yarium, ever hear of the "Rods from God" concept? It would be very easy to keep such a system hidden and secret. There are benefits to keeping your adveseries guessing about your capabilities. How long was the B2 in service before it become unclassified? Remember when the Shuttle was in service 3 out of 4 launches were not announced. Of course locals saw the launches so it's kind of an open secret. Who knows what they got up there...