Last year, astronomers identified a rocket body that was headed for a lunar collision; the impact took place on March 4. The resulting crater was unexpectedly two craters: an 18-meter-diameter easter crater superimposed on a 16-meter-diameter western crater. This was discovered by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
It can be inferred from the unexpected double crater creation that the rocket body had substantial masses at each end. Typically, the mass of a used rocket stage is concentrated at the motor end and the remaining space is made up of an empty fuel tank. The fact that the crater is double-sided may assist identify the rocket that caused it, whose origin is still unknown. The Moon has not yet had any other rocket body impacts that have produced double craters. The four craters left behind by the third stage of the Saturn rockets used to launch the Apollo missions (Apollo 13, 14, 15, and 17) had irregular shapes and were significantly larger, with the majority of them having diameters greater than 35 metres. About 29 metres wide at its widest point, the double crater made by the mysterious rocket was comparable to the size of the Saturn rockets.
Before the impact, scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona came to the conclusion that a Chinese booster from a rocket launch in 2014 was to blame. However, NASA has not yet verified this.
“We compared a spectrum (which can identify an object’s material composition) with Chinese and SpaceX rockets of comparable sorts, and it matched the Chinese rocket,” the researcher said. The Space Domain Awareness lab’s co-leader, associate professor Vishnu Reddy, stated in a March statement to the university press that this is the best match and that we now have the best proof.
The booster was initially identified as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster from a 2015 launch based on its course through the sky, but researchers from the university later determined that the rocket is a booster for Chang’E 5-T1, which was launched in 2014 as part of the Chinese space agency’s lunar exploration programme.
However, the crater is referred to as a “mystery rocket” in a statement about it that NASA released on June 24.
Featured Image: Wikimedia Commons
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