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The claim: Video shows asteroid impact on the moon
A Facebook post from August 19 (direct link, archive link) appears to show footage of an object racing across the sky, colliding with the moon and emitting a visible shock wave.
“Moon hit by asteroid – CAUGHT ON CAMERA,” reads the caption of the post.
It was shared more than 1,000 times within a week. The video was also posted on TikTok.
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Two experts who examined the video concluded that it was likely edited. There are no credible reports from government agencies or news outlets that an asteroid hit the moon on the day the video was released.
Video analysis shows that the footage was digitally edited
An analysis of the video by VS Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University, and Marco Postiglione, a postdoctoral researcher, found several clues that the video was likely digitally edited. These include the following:
- The asteroid appears to explode before hitting the moon.
- The shock wave passes unnaturally in front of the clouds in the sky.
- After the impact, the video zooms out, suggesting that it was edited after recording.
- The explosion sound is quieter than the blaring alarm and the barking dogs, suggesting that the audio layers have been edited together.
The post’s claim that an asteroid hit the moon on August 19, the date the post was written, is not supported by any credible news reports, nor is there any mention of such an incident on NASA’s website or social media accounts, including the “Asteroid Watch” account.
While asteroid impacts are rare, the moon is bombarded by smaller meteoroids on a daily basis, and it is not unusual for such impacts to be visible from Earth without a telescope. On March 17, 2013, an object less than 60 centimeters in diameter crashed into the moon at a speed of 90,000 km/h, causing an explosion equivalent to 5 tons of TNT, according to a NASA press release.
“Anyone looking at the moon at the moment of impact would have seen the explosion – no telescope required,” the press release said. “For about a second, the impact site glowed like a fourth magnitude star.”
The NASA website also contains videos of similar lightning caused by lunar impacts.
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If a large asteroid were to hit the moon, it would leave a large crater and eject material from the surface, but that would be the extent of the damage, according to the Planetary Society. There are no asteroids in the solar system large enough to break up the moon or knock it out of orbit.
Most known asteroids orbit the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to NASA. The largest, Vesta, has a diameter of about 529 kilometers. NASA estimates that there are between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids with a diameter of over a kilometer – about 1 kilometer – and millions of smaller ones.
As of July 31, NASA had identified about 35,000 near-Earth asteroids, including more than 800 with a diameter of over one kilometer.
Unlike the Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere, meaning there is no wind or weather. As a result, its surface is covered with well-preserved craters from all kinds of impacts.
According to the American Museum of Natural History, the largest craters on the Moon are larger than any on Earth. Mare Imbrium, for example, has a diameter of about 1,200 kilometers, making it at least four times the size of the largest known impact crater on Earth.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-checking sources:
- VS Subrahmanian, August 26, email exchange with USA TODAY
- NASA, accessed August 26, All NASA News
- NASA, accessed August 26, Asteroid Facts
- NASA, May 16, 2013, Bright explosion on the moon
- NASA, accessed August 26, Lunar Impact Videos
- The Planetary Society, August 24, 2023: What would happen if an asteroid hit the Moon?
- American Museum of Natural History, accessed August 26, On The Moon
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