<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656421533295,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017c-2d8e-d3f3-a7fc-7ffef6720000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656421533295,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017c-2d8e-d3f3-a7fc-7ffef6720000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56421525", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1041132"} }); ","_id":"00000181-aa6a-d447-ad8b-faeabdf00000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedResearchers found the grave of a forgotten NASA rocket part in a crater on the moon.
A mysterious rocket body was determined to be on a collision course with the moon last year, leading researchers to predict it would eventually land on the moon in March 2022. New images released on Thursday have confirmed the body’s landing on the moon. The impact, which was observed with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, appears to have created two craters on the moon.
CURIOSITY MARS ROVER REVEALS EVIDENCE OF CHANGING CLIMATES ON RED PLANET
content_Booster_Animation_3x_NoAnnot.gif
“The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end,” said Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in an update. Robinson is the principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. “Typically, a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end. The rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Because the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may help to indicate its identity.”
The rocket body landed inside the Hertzsprung crater, a 354-mile-wide feature on the far side of the moon.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
It is unclear which launch the rocket body may have been a part of, although Robinson suspects it to be the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory in February 2015. Others believe it may be part of the Long March 3 booster that launched China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014, although China denied this claim.
Rocket bodies have impacted the moon in the past, including four of the Apollo missions’ third-stage rocket bodies. However, none of the flights have left double craters to date.
