Lunar orbiter finds crater formed by rocket crash on Moon. It's different from others
Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the crater formed by a rocket that crashed into the Moon on March 4 of this year.
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Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the crater formed by a rocket that crashed into the Moon on March 4 of this year.
Tediously searching through imagery from a NASA spacecraft, researchers found where a discarded stage of a forgotten rocket crashed in March. But other questions remain.
A school-bus-sized object, which has been orbiting in space at about 5,600 miles per hour since 2014, crashed-landed on the Moon on March 4, 2022. The 40 foot long, 4,500-pound space debris is believed to have carved a massive — 60 to 100-feet-wide — hole near the Hertzsprung Crater on the Moon's far side. Howver, since the exact impact location is unknown, it may take NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter a few months to identify and image the new crater.
Astronomers have tracked the rocket for many years, but its origin is still contested
This collision marks the first time in history that a part of a space rocket has unintentionally crashed into the moon, according to the ESA.