'Biggest observed meteorite impact' hits Moon

[Rick]

'Biggest observed meteorite impact' hits Moon

Spanish astronomers spotted a meteorite with a mass of about half a tonne crashing into the lunar surface last September.

They say the collision would have generated a flash of light so bright that it would have been visible from Earth.

The event is reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"This is the largest, brightest impact we have ever observed on the Moon," said Prof Jose Madiedo, of the University of Huelva in south-western Spain.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26325934

[mickw]

And it's taken over 5 months to report it ?

[Rick]

I figure that report's come out of an RAS press release folowing publication of a (presumably peer-reviewed) paper in the RAS journal. So yeah, the event was a few months back, and it's taken a while to figure out for sure what caused it...