Lunar Meteoroid Impacts and How to Observe Them

The face of the Moon we see today has been substantially etched by the effects of meteor impacts. Craters on the Moon are the result of ancient impacts with large meteorites - or small asteroid-like bodies - which produced both primary craters (where the meteorites hit) and secondary craters (where material hurled high above the surface crashed back down). Even some of the vast lunar "seas" - actually basalt plains from ancient volcanic eruptions - may have been the result of impacts that triggered lava outflows.