Months after a rocket slammed into the far side of the moon, Nasa is releasing the first images of the crater that raise questions.
WASHINGTON DC – It has been several months since an impact on the moon caused a lot of attention: In March, a large piece of space debris hit the far side of the moon. Observers initially assumed that a discarded rocket stage from the private space company SpaceX was on a collision course with the moon. Experts later corrected the assumption and found that that it was apparently a Chinese rocket partwhich should hit the far side of the moon.
Nobody was able to watch the hit itself live, as it took place on the far side of the moon. But for researchers it is an important event, as the impact reveals deeper layers of the moon and makes new discoveries possible. In fact, a similar event took place in October 2009 – but it was planned at the time: the US space agency Nasa let the LCROSS spacecraft crash to the moon, to then examine the crater and the dust thrown up. In the “Apollo” era of Nasa, the lunar modules were also thrown onto the moon in order to explore it.
Rocket impact on the moon: Nasa discovers craters – and is faced with a mystery
Because the involuntary crash on the moon could provide valuable scientific data, NASA had planned to use the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) probe to search for and explore the impact crater. Now the US space agency has released footage of it for the first time. The images hold a surprise: instead of one crater, LRO found two new craters on the moon’s surface. The eastern of the two impact points has a diameter of about 18 meters, the western crater is about 16 meters in size. “The double crater is unexpected and could indicate that the rocket had large masses at both ends,” NASA said.
Usually, discarded rocket stages have a large mass on one side – the engine. The other side consists only of the empty and therefore light fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket that hit the moon has still not been clarified beyond doubt, the double crater could reveal something about its identity, Nasa emphasizes on its website. So far, no rocket impact has left a double crater on the moon. The impacts during the moon missions “Apollo 13”, “Apollo 14”, “Apollo 15” and “Apollo 17” produced somewhat irregular craters and were larger than the double crater with a diameter of more than 35 meters. (tab)
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