NASA photographed the crash site of a mysterious rocket that crashed on the far side of the moon in March, and an unidentified spacecraft left behind a strange double crater that has puzzled scientists.
Pictures of the crash site were taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on May 25. breast June 24. The images show that the lost piece (of which the origin is still disputed) somehow created two overlapping holes when it collided with the other side of the ship. lua Traveling at 5,770 miles per hour (9,290 km/h).
Unexpected twin wells add an extra layer of weirdness to the mystery that has baffled space watchers From January, when Bill Gray, an American astronomer and software developer who tracks near-Earth objects, predicted that some space debris in orbit would collide with the far side of the moon within a few months, Live Science previously reported. When Gray discovered the wreckage, he assumed it was the second stage of the Falcon X rocket that Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched in 2015. But subsequent observations and analysis of orbital data showed that the object was The upper stage of the Chinese rocket “Chang’e 5-T1” was commissioned.Spaceship (Named after the Chinese goddess of the moon.) which was launched in 2014. However, the Chinese authorities disagreed, claiming that the upper stage of this rocket burned out. Terra Joseph many years ago.
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At least 47 NASA rockets have landed on the moon so far. Arizona State UniversityBut NASA’s ‘double crater was unexpected’ wrote in a statement. “No other rocket objects on the Moon have produced double craters.”
Although scientists could not directly observe the moment of impact, experts predicted that the ejected rocket stage would hit the lunar surface in Hertzsprung crater on the far side of the Moon on March 4 at 7:25 am ET (12:25 pm). GMT). The LRO observations show the retreat of the Moon – the eastern crater is 18 m wide and the western crater is 16 m. Had NASA’s LRO been positioned to film the impact, it would likely have documented a lunar dust cloud hundreds of kilometers high.
Scientists are still speculating what could have formed two craters. NASA officials have said one possibility is that the craters formed from a piece of debris with two large masses at either end, although this scenario is unusual.
“Typically, the expended mass of a rocket is concentrated at the end of the engine, while the rest of the rocket stage consists mainly of an empty fuel tank,” the statement said.
Is this really a Chang’e 5-T1 booster?
Because the booster is likely to completely disintegrate on impact, it’s unclear if examining the craters will provide significant clues to its controversial source. But some astronomers believe that much of the mystery has already been solved. Grey wrote on your blog Shortly after the images were released, the object was finally identified as the Chang’e 5-T1 amplifier.
“I am absolutely convinced that nothing else can be,” Gray said in an interview with Live Science. “At the moment, we rarely have something so certain.”
Gray made his first prediction of the disputed debris hitting the Moon after it was seen falling into space in March 2015. , Arizona, which is scanning our space region for dangerous asteroids that could hit Earth. However, WE0913A was not about sunAs asteroid But instead, it revolved around the Earth. Gray suspects that the body is made by human hands.
Mistaking the mysterious debris for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Gray went back to the data and found that another spacecraft was close to the debris path to the moon: the upper stage of China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, which launched in October. 2014 as part of the original mission to send a test capsule to and from the Moon.
Chinese Foreign Ministry officials deny that the space debris is theirs, insisting that the Chang’e-5 rocket actually burned up during its return flight to Earth in 2014. A similar rocket. From the 2020 mission, he landed on the moon for the first time. March 1 The US Department of Defense Space Command, which tracks space debris in low Earth orbit, made a statement They say that the Chinese rocket of 2014 did not leave orbit.
Gray believes his orbit data, which matches almost perfectly with the Chinese rocket’s initial trajectory, is crucial.
“A huge number of lunar missions are in orbit; his inclination means that in the past he was bound for China; it was heading east in the same way as the Chinese lunar missions; and its estimated launch time is within 20 minutes of the Chang’e 5-T1 rocket,” Gray said.
According to Gray, an amateur radio satellite (or “Cubesat”) was connected to the Chang’e 5-T1 for the first 19 days of its flight, and the trajectory data sent from that satellite matched exactly the current trajectory of the rocket debris. . Others have also identified important evidence supporting Gray’s conclusion; NASA’s Near-Earth Object Research Center, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Gray’s analysis of the orbital data, and a team at the University of Arizona identified the rocket as part of the Chang’e 5-T1 mission by analyzing the spectrum of light reflected by coatings on the Earth’s surface. crushed rubble. .
While this is the first unwanted chunk of alien space to inadvertently collide with the Moon, it’s not the first time an artificial satellite has crashed there. In 2009, NASA’s crater detection and monitoring satellite was deliberately launched towards the south pole of the moon at 9,000 km/h, releasing a plume that allowed scientists to detect the chemical signatures of water ice. NASA also disposed of Apollo’s Saturn V rockets by launching them to the moon.
Gray said the confusion over the object’s identity highlights the real need for space agencies and private companies around the world to develop better procedures for tracking the rockets they send into deep space (which would also prevent these objects from mistaking the object as dangerous to Earth). asteroids). . .
“From my selfish point of view, this will help us better track asteroids,” Gray said. “The care given to LEO satellites has not been applied to LEO satellites because people have found it doesn’t matter much. And I hope that the United States is now considering returning to the moon and other countries sending their things there, which may change. Situation”.
Originally published on Live Science.
