Watch the moment a meteorite smashed into the MOON: Incredible footage shows lightning as craters form

Incredible footage shows the moment a meteorite impacted the moon, carving a crater on its surface.

A huge flash of light was captured by a Japanese astronomer on February 23 in what has been described as a likely “lunar impact flash.”

Daichi Fuji, head of the astronomy department at Hiratsuka City Museum, captured the split-second film just after 8:15 p.m. (11:15 GMT) from his home in Hiratsuka, Japan.

He tweeted, “I was able to capture the largest moon impact flash in my observational history!

“At the time of observation, no artificial satellite was flying over the lunar surface, and from the way it glows, it’s very likely that it’s a lunar lightning strike.”

Mr. Fuji said the object appears to have fallen near Ideler-L crater, just northwest of Pitiscus crater on the moon.

Because the light captured by his telephoto camera was so bright, he claimed that the “crater produced was large” and the “streaks clearly visible.”

However, meteors and fireballs are not visible because the moon has no atmosphere, he added, but the moment a crater forms, it “glows”.

He continued, “The moon’s height was only seven degrees at the time, and I was glad I was able to hold out until the last minute.”

MailOnline has reached out to the European Space Agency and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for further comment.

According to Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, about 100 ping-pong ball-sized meteoroids arrive on the moon every day.

He told Live Science last year, “That adds up to about 33,000 meteoroids a year.

“Despite their small size, each of these ping-pong ball-sized rocks hit the surface with the force of 7 pounds (3.2 kilograms) of dynamite.”

Just over a week before Mr Fuji was shot, another meteoroid also produced a shooting star that could be seen across southern England and Wales and parts of France.

The rock, designated 2023 CX1, entered the atmosphere at 3am about two miles off the coast of France and created a fireball as it broke up into small pieces that landed in the sea.

It was only the seventh time an asteroid impact had been successfully predicted, which the European Space Agency said was “a sign of rapid advances in global asteroid detection capabilities.”

However, the largest known lunar impact is believed to have occurred nearby 4.3 billion years ago near its south pole.

The massive impact is said to have sent a huge heat plume through the lunar interior.