NASA reports that a mysterious rocket that crashed into the Moon left behind two craters

The object is said by some astronomers to have been a Chinese rocket that was launched in 2014.

 

NASA has taken photographs of the crash site of the unexplained spacecraft that slammed into the far side of the Moon in March. The pictures show that the unidentified spacecraft left behind a strange twin crater that has scientists scratching their heads.

 

On May 25, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA captured images of the crash site, and those images were made public on June 24. The errant material, the origins of which are still up for debate, slammed onto the remote side of the Moon at an estimated speed of 5,770 miles per hour (9,290 kilometres per hour); the photographs show, miraculously carving out two craters that overlap each other.

 

The unexpected dual craters add a layer of strangeness to a mystery that has confounded space watchers since January. Back in January, Bill Gray, an American astronomer and developer of software that tracks near-Earth objects, predicted that the orbiting piece of space junk would hit the Moon's far side in a matter of months, as previously reported by Live Science. Since then, space watchers have been mystified by the mystery. Gray speculated that the debris was the second stage of a Falcon X rocket that had been launched by Elon Musk's company SpaceX in 2015. When he initially observed the trash, he suggested that it was. However, subsequent observations and analyses of orbital data provided evidence that the object was the expended upper stage of China's Change 5-T1 rocket, a spacecraft (named after the Chinese moon goddess) that was launched in 2014. This occurred in 2014. Officials from China, on the other hand, thought that the upper stage of this rocket had already been consumed by the atmosphere of Earth many years ago.

 

At least 47 NASA rocket bodies have crashed into the Moon to this day; yet, "the twin craters were unexpected," NASA noted in a statement about the recent discovery. There have been no previous rocket bodies that have impacted the Moon that has created double craters.

 

Experts speculated that the spent rocket stage hit the lunar surface in Hertzsprung crater on the far side of the Moon on March 4 around 7:25 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). This was even though scientists were unable to monitor the moment of impact (12:25 GMT) directly. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has made observations that show two depressions on the surface of the Moon. The eastern crater measures 59 feet (18 meters) wide, whilst the western cavity measures 52.5 feet (16 meters) across. If NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) had been in a position to take pictures of the impact, it is possible that it would have recorded a cloud of lunar dust erupting hundreds of miles high.

 

The researchers are currently speculating on what could have resulted in the formation of the two craters. According to NASA representatives, one of the possibilities is that the craters were produced by a piece of debris that had two huge masses at either end. Still, they acknowledged that this scenario is an unlikely option.

 

According to the statement, "in most cases, a spent rocket will have the majority of its mass concentrated at the motor end." In contrast, the remaining portion of the rocket stage will primarily consist of an empty fuel tank.

 

Is it the booster for the Chang'e 5-T1?

 

The rocket booster was most likely destroyed upon impact, making it difficult to predict whether or not analyzing the craters will yield any significant insights into the object's contentious background. However, some astronomers believe that they have solved most of the enigma already. Soon after the photographs were made public, Gray published a post on his blog in which he stated that the object had been "very convincingly identified as the Chang'e 5-T1 booster."

 

In an interview with Live Science, Gray stated, "I'm fairly certain that there's no way it can be anything else." "At this point, we almost never acquire anything that can be said with absolute certainty."

 

After the contentious debris was seen hurtling through space in March of 2015, Gray made his first forecast that it would collide with the Moon. The Catalina Sky Survey is a collection of telescopes located in the Tucson, Arizona, area that monitors our cosmic neighbourhood in search of potentially hazardous asteroids that could collide with Earth. The Catalina Sky Survey was the first to catch sight of the object, which has been given the provisional name WE0913A. On the other hand, rather than orbiting the sun as an asteroid would, WE0913A was around the Earth. Gray had a sneaking suspicion that humans had manufactured the device.

 

Gray went back to the data and found that another spacecraft was a close match for the trajectory of the moon-bound debris. This spacecraft was the upper stage of China's Chang'e 5-T1 mission, which launched in October 2014 as part of a preliminary mission to send a test capsule to the Moon and back. After initially misidentifying the mystery trash as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Gray went back to the data and found that this other spacecraft was a close match.

 

Officials from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted claims that their country is responsible for the debris in orbit and insisted that their Chang'e 5 rocket had already exploded on its way back to Earth in 2014. However, analysts from the United States have disputed this assertion, speculating that Chinese officials may have confused the rocket from 2014 with a similarly named rocket from a mission in 2020 and that the former is the one that successfully landed on the Moon. The Space Command of the United States Department of Defense, which monitors debris in low-Earth orbit, stated on March 1, confirming that China's rocket from 2014 did not ever deorbit from space.

 

Gray is confident that he has found proof using his orbital data since it provides an almost exact match to the initial trajectory of the Chinese rocket.

 

"It's in the orbit that an awful lot of lunar missions take; its inclination means that, in the past, it was headed out over China; it was going east in the way that Chinese lunar missions do; and its estimated launch time falls within 20 minutes of the Chang'e 5-T1 rocket," said Gray. "Its inclination means that, in the past, it was headed out over China."

 

According to Gray, the trajectory data that was received back by an amateur radio satellite known as a "cubesat" that was attached to the Chang'e 5-T1 for the first 19 days of its flight perfectly fits the present course of the rocket debris. Others have also found essential clues that support Gray's conclusion. The Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Gray's analysis of the orbital data, and a team from the University of Arizona identified the rocket as being a part of the Chang'e 5-T1 mission by analyzing the light spectrum reflected by paint on the crashed debris. Both of these findings support Gray's conclusion.

 

Even if this is the first instance of an accidental collision between a piece of space debris and the Moon, it is not the first instance of a satellite that was created by humans colliding with the Moon. In 2009, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite was purposefully slammed into the south pole of the Moon at a speed of 5,600 mph (9,000 km/h). This caused a plume to be released, which allowed scientists to identify the chemical signs of water ice. In addition, NASA got rid of the Saturn V rockets that were used in the Apollo mission by firing them at the Moon.

 

According to Gray, the misunderstanding that has surrounded the object's identification emphasizes the fact that space-faring organizations and private firms all across the world need to create better processes for tracking the rockets that they launch into deep space (which would also keep such objects from being mistaken for Earth-threatening asteroids).

 

According to Gray, "it would assist us in monitoring asteroids better, which is helpful to me from a selfish standpoint." Because people believe that satellites in high-earth orbit are not in danger, the same level of care that is provided to satellites in low-earth orbit has not been applied to those in high-earth orbit. It is my sincere hope that this perspective will shift now that the United States is mulling over the possibility of a lunar landing and other nations are sending objects to the Moon. "

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/moon-rocket-double-crater-in-moon

Image source  : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/pesawat-ulang-alik-roket-774/

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