Incredible images show the moment when a meteorite crashed into the moon, carving a crater into the surface. There was a huge flash of light captured by a Japanese astronomer on February 23 in what has been described as probable “moon impact flash”.

Daichi Fuji, head of astronomy at the Hiratsuka City Museum, captured a split-second video shortly after 8:15 p.m. from his home in Hiratsuka, Japan.

He tweeted: “I was able to capture the largest lunar impact flash in my observing history! There was no artificial satellite flying over the lunar surface at the time of the sighting, and given the way it glows, it’s very likely a lunar impact flash.”

Fuji said so the object appeared to have fallen near the Ideler L crater, slightly northwest of the Pitiscus crater on the moon. Because the light captured by his telephoto lens was so bright, he claimed the “generated crater is big” and that the “stretch marks are clearly visible.”

However, meteorites and fireballs are not visible, as the Moon has no atmosphere, but when a crater forms, it ‘glows’. He continued: “At that time the moon’s elevation was only seven degreesand I was happy that I could hold out until the last minute.”

Every day, about 100 ping pong ball-sized meteoroids hit the moon.according to Bill Cooke, chief of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Just over a week before Fuji’s capture, another meteoroid also created a shooting star that could be seen in southern England and Wales and in parts of France. The rock, dubbed 2023 CX1, entered the atmosphere at 3 a.m. about two miles off the French coast, sparking a fireball as it broke up into small pieces that landed in the sea.