:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/HDC-GettyImages-1181672880-baac88ca08e44378bff05ecd1cbff887.jpg "8 Foods to Eat When You’re Sick of Chicken for Dinner")
It’s one of the best annual meteor shows on Earth: the Geminids Meteor Shower. Observed since the late 19th century, the Geminids peak between Dec 12 and 14 this year, with the shower phase continuing the whole month. During the peak, stargazers can witness between 100 and 120 Geminid meteors hit the Earth’s atmosphere and go kaboom! While earthlings will observe the celestial Diwali ahead of Christmas, the impact will also be seen on the Moon.
Our lunar neighbor is more susceptible to meteor hits, at one lunar impact every two hours, typically. However, during the Geminids, this will be one every twelve minutes. How cool is that? Imagine being on the moon to witness the impact. Well, you will probably have to run for cover, as the atmosphere on our neighboring satellite is too thin to reduce the force of the impact, like on Earth.
Per NASA
On average, 33 metric tons (73,000 lbs) of meteoroids hit Earth every day, the vast majority of which harmlessly ablate (“burn up”) high in the atmosphere, never making it to the ground.
The Moon, however, has little or no atmosphere, so meteoroids have nothing to stop them from striking the surface.
The slowest of these rocks travels at 20 km/sec (45,000 mph); the fastest travels at over 72 km/sec (160,000 mph). At such speeds even a small meteoroid has incredible energy—one with a mass of only 5 kg (10 lbs) can excavate a crater over 9 meters (30 ft) across, hurling 75 metric tons (165,000 lbs) of lunar soil and rock on ballistic trajectories above the lunar surface.
Can we see these lunar impacts? NASA further adds
Looking for impacts on the Moon is as simple as pointing a telescope at its dark portion.
When a meteoroid strikes the Moon, a large portion of the impact energy goes into heat and producing a crater; however, a small fraction goes into generating visible light, which results in a brilliant flash at the point of impact. This can be seen from Earth if the incoming meteoroid has enough kinetic energy. Just how much is “enough” depends on the equipment used in the observations.
What could be a good instrument to capture the lunar impacts? NASA suggests
While you can look for impact flashes with just the telescope and your eyes, it is much better to have a record of the event that can be subjected to detailed analysis. A still camera is not a good choice, as you don’t know when the impact will occur. Impact flashes are short, usually less than a half-second, and you would be very lucky to press the shutter button in time to get a picture. Even if you did, you would miss the brightest part of the event, which occurs near the very beginning of the flash.
A better choice is a low light level video camera, which records continuously at rates of 1/30th of a second. Hours of this data can be stored on a video tape or computer hard disk for later analysis.
Tonight is the peak of the Geminids meteor shower, but our eyes will actually be on the Moon. 🌝
Here at #NASAMarshall we have a Lunar Impact Monitoring team. Typically, we spot about one lunar impact every two hours. But, during the Geminids, we could see one every 12 minutes!… pic.twitter.com/RyVjObxpNi
— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) December 13, 2025
