A video has been released of a record-breaking meteorite strike on the moon, which took place back on Sept. 11, 2013, and was unveiled for the first time this week.
The video shows a long flash that was almost as bright as the North Star Polaris, which means the meteorite's crash was likely visible, weather permitting, to anyone who was looking at the moon at approximately 8:07 p.m. on that date, according to Space.com.
Jose Madiedo, a professor at the University of Huelva, witnessed the collision by using two telescopes in Spain that were constructed for the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System, (MIDAS) observatory.
"At that moment I realized that I had seen a very rare and extraordinary event," Jose Madiedo, a professor at the University of Huelva, said in a statement, according to Space.com.
Research on the 2013 crash was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this weekend.
The boulder-sized meteorite hit while moving over 37,900 mph, creating a creator around 131 feet wide in an ancient lava filled lunar basin commonly referred to as Mare Nubium, according to Madiedo.
The boulder was likely around 880 lbs. and anywhere between 2 to 4.5 feet in diameter.
"Our telescopes will continue observing the moon as our meteor cameras monitor the Earth's atmosphere," Madiedo said in a statement. "In this way we expect to identify clusters of rocks that could give rise to common impact events on both planetary bodies. We also want to find out where the impacting bodies come from."
If a meteorite of the same size were to hit Earth, it likely would not have posed as a threat to mankind, according to Madiedo, but the impact is comparable to an explosion of around 15 tons of TNT.
It was approximately three times more powerful than the lunar explosion observed by NASA back on March 17, 2013, where a space rock hit while going over 56,000 mph. It created a crater of over 65 feet wide, according to the study.
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