![[USGS Banner]](/web/20060930015034im_/http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/assets/banners/default.jpg)
A Baby Crater is Born
Tuesday, June 13. 2006
On May 2, 2006, a baby crater was born on the Moon. NASA says it’s about 14 meters wide, 3 meters deep and precisely one month, eleven days old. What a baby! NASA astronomers watched a meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy.
Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama said that the impact created a bright fireball, which was video-recorded using a 10-inch telescope. Stuff hits the Moon all the time," said Cooke--but this is the best-ever recording of an explosion in progress."
