During the eclipse a meteorite fell on the moon

Many people who watched a lunar eclipse live last night, during online broadcasts at 4:41:43 UTC, noticed a small flash, a yellow and white spot on the surface of the moon. One of the users of Reddit suggested that this is a meteorite. He was not mistaken: indeed, this is the first known observation of a meteorite falling during a lunar eclipse. The flash is visible on at least three videos ( 1 , 2 , 3 ).

José Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva in Spain confirmed to The Scientist that this is a real meteorite. For many years, he and his colleagues hoped to see a meteorite fall to the moon during a lunar eclipse, but it didn’t work: the flashes were recorded earlier , but not during the eclipse.

This time, Madiedo doubled the number of telescopes aimed at different parts of the moon from four to eight: “I had a hunch that this time it would happen,” he says. And no mistake.

After the eclipse, the software automatically captured the flash in images recorded by several of the telescopes. This helped prove to confirm that the flashes observed live were not just optical anomalies on camera sensors.

“I was very, very happy when it happened,” says Madiedo. He notes that the flash occurred during a suitable phase of the eclipse, when the moon was dark enough to facilitate its detection.

The size of the meteorite has not yet been officially announced. Madiedo thinks he weighed about 2 kg and was about the size of a soccer ball.