Astronomers discovered a rocket body heading toward a lunar collision late last year. Impact occurred on March 4, 2022, with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later spotting the resulting crater. Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-meter diameter, about 19.5 yards) superimposed on a western crater (16-meter diameter, about 17.5 yards).
The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end. Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity.
No other rocket body impacts on the Moon created double craters. The four Apollo SIV-B craters were somewhat irregular in outline (Apollos 13, 14, 15, 17) and were substantially larger (greater than 35 meters, about 38 yards) than each of the double craters. The maximum width (29 meters, about 31.7 yards) of the double crater of the mystery rocket body was near that of the S-IVBs.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. LRO data is essential for planning NASA’s upcoming human and robotic missions to the Moon.
LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon.
With Artemis, NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.
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41 Comments
The animation supplied does not even show the impact crater afterward, so it’s just click-bait.
Useless article. No quotes, no explanation of what it could be, no history of this happening or not before, no mention of what’s being done, or even if there are Apollo SIV-Bs flooring around that this could even be. Utterly uninformative and disorienting to read.
What’s funny there was so much hate for SpaceX when people thought it was their booster when had over 3 different spacecraft already impact the face of the moon anyways. Where is all the hate now?
Fake. There woukd be no bright explosion on the moon as that woukd require combustion, which would require oxygen of which there is none on the moon.
I guess the sun can’t shine then. I guess the filament in a lightbulb can’t glow then.
C’mon, dude, think before you post.
I hope you’re trolling, because everything you just said is so wildly uneducated that my brain hurts. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.
Re: Titch, it says it right there in the caption: “Artist’s animation”.
Are they saying that an unknown entity bombed the moon or am I missing something?
No, just a rocket booster segment of currently unidentified origin crashing into it.
Personally, l hate when NASA tells lies to the World and nothing NASA has achieved in space but lies always
Alright then, bud. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Wow did you people READ the article and READ the captions to the photos and gifs supplied within said article? Literally explains everything you all claim is fake useless click-bait.
Strange how the rocket body appears to be coming directly from the sat, That has the camera. But it’s a mystery where it came from.
Note the caption: “artist’s animation”. Just an approximation, not the actual thing.
It does it’s the figure 8
It’s in the dead center of the gif.. the two images were taken at different times (obviously) so the moon was in a different location hence why the shadows cast are different.. just like when something casts a shadow in one direction in the morning and the other direction in the evening. The only thing that wasn’t explained was whose rocket it is believed to be.. they only gave reason as to why it was not NASA’s.
Also the animation at the top is an artists rendition of what happens.. not the actual event. We don’t know the trajectory or how close it was to the satellite.. just a before and after image.
So, nobody even has a theory about where it came from?
And of course there’s an ‘artists impression’ to compensate for the near total absence of any other information, well done you for this lazy attempt at ‘popular science’.
Actually happened folks, fools for being sooo contrary, to what evidence was supplied in said article. Where is the blind faith? Why all the hate. If you don’t understand it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. It’s part of not being afraid to Learn. Thanks
This was a Chinese booster that had been in wide Earth orbit and fell into moon’s gravity well. We knew it was going to happen. The photo is a before-after GIF you may need to click it to have the animation loop. IF that was an explosion it would be because there was propellant remaining in the booster.
Did it bounce? Or at least some of it. But I suppose to do that it would need to be incredibly strong to survive the first hit
It’s China’s, leave it be.
It’s all fake! You sheep!
I’m sorry, but whenever somebody uses the term “sheep” when referring to people unironically, it makes me laugh out loud.
Seven powerful instruments on board nasas lro may be they should of just put one it’s called a Nikon. All you guys taking up for nasa in comment section, there is gonna come a day when your gonna get sick of artists rendition, think about it for just a second, REALLY! why is it in 2022 it’s still just artists rendition and nothing but hypothesis statements coming from them. Probably shouldn’t even use the word hypothesis
They should restrict people with poor reading and comprehension skills from comments.So many stupid questions.
My sources tell me it was Chinese but that is still unofficial
How sad that we have treated earth like our own personal dumpster and now here we are dumping our junk on the moon. The human species is a virus that continues to spread even with the risk of self destruction.
Morons the lot, read. Right under the top 2 photos, and animations it says, artist animation. And the first is a freeze frame from that animation… the lot of you watch you much star wars and star trek and listen to too much steave Bannon crap.
Fake.
Thanks for the elaboration, Joe.
Very cool mystery! Have they found its origin yet? Reminds me of a time in about 1974, I was sitting at a rural stop light, when I saw a (presumed) rocket body tumbling through the atmosphere, in flames. Never heard a word about it in the media.
@Aaron
“They should restrict people with poor reading and comprehension skills from comments.”
INDEED! 👍
It is fake. The footage is implausible, and the article explains nothing.
Read. The. Caption. It says, clear as day, “Artists Animation.”
It’s not a mistrery the scientists years ago shot the moon with a rocket looking for water
Unknown origin? What happened to NASA’s globally distributed tracking stations (JPL headquartered at Cal Tech in Pasadena, CA)? They are charged with tracking near earth space objects, including space junk?
First de blur the image, then clear the noise of the image , bring up the shadow , and adjust the contrast then zoom in and explain what you see all around.
Could be a test run for fireing at objects comeing to near earth ??? Think outside the box.what is the real message hear?
Oxygen is required for an open flame but not necessarily for an explosion. Heat generated by friction can cause an explosion, no oxygen required. In fact an asteroid with a solid iron core and measuring only 600 feet across can generate enough heat wile falling through Earths atmosphere to compress its iron core to the point of causing a nuclear explosion.