Astronomer Captures Rare Asteroid Strikes Slamming into the Moon

In the past week, a Japanese astronomer has documented two dramatic asteroid strikes on the lunar surface. On November 3rd, 2025, at 8:33 pm local time, Daichi Fujii, a curator at the Hiratsuka City Museum, spotted a brief but bright flash on the moon. Then, just a few days later on November 5th, at 8:49 pm, Fujii captured another luminous outburst on the moon's surface.

These lunar impact events, occurring just before and after Halloween, are a stark reminder that the moon is far from the serene celestial body we often admire in the night sky. Rather, it is a constant battleground, continuously gaining new craters as it is pummeled by a barrage of space rocks.

The two asteroids struck the moon's surface at staggering speeds of up to 60,000 miles per hour - about 30 times faster than a fighter jet. While the exact sizes of the objects are unknown, even a relatively small asteroid a few feet in length traveling at that velocity would unleash a powerful explosion equivalent to a modest stockpile of dynamite. These fleeting lunar impacts can be observed from hundreds of thousands of miles away on Earth.

Documenting such events is crucial for astronomers, as it helps them better understand the frequency of asteroid strikes on the moon. This, in turn, allows them to refine estimates of the number of larger asteroids that could potentially impact our own planet with devastating consequences.