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In 1956, an amateur astronomer -- Leon H. Stuart -- reported in the Strolling
Astronomer, that he had observed and photographed a flash a few years earlier
on the Moon. This event is the only unambiguous record of the crash of an
asteroid-sized body onto the lunar surface.
Now, decades later, a study of lunar images snapped by the Clementine
spacecraft as it orbited the Moon in 1994 has uncovered a candidate crater
formed by the impact.
Eagle-eye scientists, Bonnie Buratti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and Lane Johnson of Pomona College in Claremont, California have locating a
near mile across (1.5-kilometer) feature with a fresh-appearing ejecta blanket
at the location of the flash. Spectral analysis of the crater, they report, reveals
it to be bluer and fresher than other young craters.
More info: Space.com
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