this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 70 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

225m for a hit where there's no atmosphere to slow it down. I wonder if something that would cause a that size of crater on the moon would even make it to the Earth's surface, or if it would burn up before it hit.

[–] westo232@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

It depends on the material.

If the same asteroid that created the 225m wide crater on moon hit earth instead it would burn up in earth atmosphere if it was rocky in nature (~3.6m wide, 73 tons).

If the crater was made by a mostly iron asteroid, it would create a 12.5m crater on earth (~2.3m wide, 51 tons).

The reason for this is that rocky asteroids shatter thus have bigger surface area to burn up.

Iron asteroids stay solid and survive the atmosphere much easily.

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 weeks ago

Just two weeks ago we had a meteor of that estimated size range in my home region (western Germany).

The moving fireball and bright disintigration flashes were visible in a > 100km radius even though it was not completely dark yet.
Areas directly underneath also reported hearing a loud boom.

One of the fraqments caused a soccerball-sized hole in a roof and was recovered from the bedroom underneath.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 3 points 2 weeks ago
[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

A 12.5m crater doesn't sound that big. Sounds like what you get from a bomb in a war zone. Bad if you happen to be right next to it, but If you're a few blocks away you might have shattered windows, but no structural damage.

Where did you get the numbers btw? I took a quick look and couldn't find any details on how big the asteroid was.

[–] westo232@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I agree it's not big at all. Also there's a 2/3 chance it goes into the ocean not creating any crater at all.

I just ran some scenarios through AI. I'm not any kind of physicist or anything like that, but I tested some gotchas and the results seem to be reasonable (in a What If kind of way of thinking - the numbers should be correct in order of magnitude).

Only ~8% of asteroids falling on the Earth are metallic.

You can get the size of the original asteroid from the size of crater (mass of the moon and the nature of regolith are known). The biggest variables are speed of the asteroid and angle of impact (I took a reasonable guess and assumed they are not changing in these scenarios). Whether the original asteroid was mettalic or not we may never know.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 48 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

When I was a kid I thought that any asteroid hitting Earth was bad. Now I gotta ask "where is it going to impact" first.

[–] Venator@lemmy.nz 30 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Zuriz@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How far away will it end up passing by us?

[–] X@piefed.world 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 24 points 3 weeks ago

If it hasn't called me back in a week are we still on for the date?

[–] funkajunk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Hopefully my house

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago

Asteroid impacts are a bit disturbingly common. It was only 8 years ago that one about twice as powerful as the nukes used on Japan hit earth. Smaller but still over a kiloton have hit in the last two years.

[–] dorumon@lemmy.cafe 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

A meteorite flashed into my backyard in Ohio. It was pretty cool!

[–] Denalduh@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That was just last week right? I have a buddy in Cleveland who heard the sound of it breaking the sound barrier around 9am.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The real cover up is that they are saying meteors are hitting the moon and making craters when in fact, because the world's natural cheese supply is dwindling, they are scooping giant chunks of moon cheese out and bringing it back to earth.

[–] Lauchmelder@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't be ridiculous. Why wouldn't they just take it from the side of the moon that is facing away from us....cmon guys

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They already mined all the cheese from that side.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

That explains the moon "phases"

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sneaky plan by "Big Moon Globes and Images". All of the old globes, posters, and shirts have to be replaced, as we cannot learn with in-accurate images of the Moon. Three Wolves cannot howl at old images of the Moon!

[–] grue@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

My globe doesn't even have South Sudan on it, and you expect me to have up-to-date maps of the moon?!

[–] PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

Just draw it in

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago

As you may have noticed, it's not 2032, so NASA was right.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Big moon trying to get more crater impacts so they can sell you on more big craters.

[–] espentan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

What if the person telling them is busy doing something else?!

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Don't worry! Asteroids cannot hit the same place twice!

Or something...

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Seems like a great place for solar panels

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 2 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The issue with solar for stuff on the moon is that it's night is very long compared to earth, so anything you power with it needs to be able to shut down (and also get very cold without powered heaters) without harm over that time, or have a comparatively large amount of energy storage. Unless you're at one of a handful of spots at the poles where the sun almost never fully sets.

[–] Brummbaer@pawb.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

Just put it on the light side if the moon - problem solved.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 1 points 2 weeks ago

You're right. Better use some wind turbines too.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's fine, just give the moon a solar panel belt around it's equator.

"It's noon somewhere"