NASA reported on Friday that a moon explosion was visible from earth without a telescope. The explosion was caused when a meteoroid that was traveling 56,000 mph hit the lunar surface. The flash only lasted about a second but it was visible on Earth without a telescope. The space agency said it sees hundreds of these kinds of impacts on the moon every year.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before." Cooke explained that Earth was also pelted by meteoroids at the same time, but they hit the moon because there is no atmosphere on Earth’s satellite to protect it. Cooke added "We'll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-moon system passes through the same region of space.”

Astronomers at NASA have been monitoring the moon for explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface for the past eight years as part of a program to find new fields of space debris that could hit Earth. NASA says it sees hundreds of detectable lunar meteoroid impacts a year, but none have matched the size of the explosion that was visible on March 17. The explosion was equalt to about five tons of TNT. NASA said it glowed like a Fourth Magnitude Star. The meteoroid was less than a meter wide and was about 40 kilograms.

Ron Suggs of the Marshall Space Flight Center, exclaimed "It jumped right out at me, it was so bright,"

Explosions can occur on the moon, which has no oxygen, because the flash of light comes by molten rock at the impact site, not from any type of combustion.