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Asteroids Hitting the Moon Is Not Something We’d Like to See for Real

The Earth and the Moon have been doing their love dance surrounded by the emptiness of space for billions of years. It’s a sort of one-sided symbiotic relationship, with our planet reaping most of the benefits of the partnership, but if one suffers, the other is bound to do the same.
Simulation of asteroid impacting the Moon 9 photos
Photo: Hazegrayart
Simulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the MoonSimulation of asteroid impacting the Moon
It is generally agreed that the Moon is the result of an incomprehensible impact between our planet and another one, roughly the size of Mars, which occurred some 4.5 billion years ago. Somehow, Earth was left standing, but the space-floating remnants of the collision coalesced to form the planet’s natural satellite.

Technically, it’s an unimpressive piece of rock, but if it weren’t for that, Earth as we know it, and possibly even life, might not have existed.

That’s because that tiny beacon of light in the night sky is responsible for keeping our planet from wobbling too much on its axis and giving it a stable climate, but is also responsible for tides, impacting marine life.

And there’s another thing the Moon does for us. From time to time, it acts as a shield of sorts, drawing asteroids onto itself and away from our precious home.

Although it’s impossible to tell, it is estimated there are over 9,000 major impact craters on the surface of the celestial body, but if you count them all, they’re likely in the hundreds and thousands. Yet, humanity has rarely witnessed first hand an asteroid hitting the Moon, so we have no idea about how that may look like as seen from here.

In case that’s a curiosity you had, Hazegrayart is here to help. The YouTube channel that brings us repeated animations of how rockets work went this time above and beyond, and put together a 3-minute long clip showing asteroids pounding the Moon.

Granted, it’s a spectacular sight, but one that is likely to cause quite a lot of panic here on Earth if it were to happen in real life.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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