The Aug. 5 impact is not the first time something has crashed into the moon.

The stream of ejected material could stretch for several miles into space and remain visible to telescopes for tens of minutes.

It will be just the second known case of a rocket unintentionally hitting the moon, though the pockmarked lunar surface is evidence that it has taken many hits over its lifetime.

Abandoned spacecraft will hit with the force of three tons of TNT and leave behind a hole in the lunar surface

Astronomers' simulations predict what the lunar impact—and its aftermath—will look like