# What if the K-T asteroid had a hit the moon?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-k-t-asteroid-had-a-hit-the-moon/154770>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 13, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-k-t-asteroid-had-a-hit-the-moon/154770 "2003-02-13T05:08:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-k-t-asteroid-had-a-hit-the-moon/154770/1 "2003-02-13T05:08:52Z")

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And on the side facing the earth. Would that have been something cool to watch? Hot enought to have turned large parts of the moon’s surface molten? Strong enough to have caused some of the debris to put on a great fireworks display as it burned up coming thru the Earth’s atmosphere?

Any ideas??? How might the moon have fared against such an intruder?

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-k-t-asteroid-had-a-hit-the-moon/154770/2 "2003-02-13T05:20:54Z")

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The question is partly answered [here.](http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=103)

> [@](#):
>
> An asteroid that large striking the Moon would release a large amount of energy and it probably would eject some of the moon rock into space, however I would guess that the bits would be quite small, so if they happened to be going in the right direction to hit the Earth they wouldn’t cause too much damage.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-k-t-asteroid-had-a-hit-the-moon/154770/3 "2003-02-13T05:25:44Z")

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As far as the effect on the Moon, the crater would be the same size as the one produced on Earth at Chixulub, that is about 210 miles in diameter. It would be easily visible to the naked eye if it were on the Earth-facing side.