The rocket colliding with the moon somehow punched out two craters, NASA says.
NASA filmed the crash site of a mysterious rocket that collided with the far side of the moon in March. The unidentified spacecraft left behind a strange double crater that confused scientists.
Images of the crash site were taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on May 25. release June 24th.The photo shows selfish debris (its origin is still disputed), but with used craters. Moon It travels at approximately 5,770 mph (9,290 km / h).
Unexpected dual craters add a layer of strangeness to the mystery that confused space watchers From JanuaryLiveScience previously reported when US astronomer and developer of software for tracking near-Earth objects, Bill Gray, predicted that orbiting space debris would hit the other side of the Moon within a few months. did. When Gray first discovered the debris, he suggested it was the second stage of the Falcon X rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in 2015.However, subsequent observations and analysis of orbital data will be carried out by the object. Spent the upper tier of the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 rocketSpacecraft (Named after the Chinese moon goddess). However, Chinese officials objected, claiming that the upper part of the rocket had burned out. Of earth The atmosphere of many years ago.
Related: Five strange and cool things we recently learned about the moon
To date, at least 47 NASA rockets have collided with the moon. Arizona State UniversityBut “Double craters were unexpected” NASA Written in a statement.. “No other rocket body has collided with the moon, creating a double crater.”
Scientists could not directly observe the moment of the collision, but experts predicted that the abandoned rocket stage would collide with the Hertzsprung crater lunar surface behind the moon. Observations from LRO show that there are two depressions on the surface of the moon. The eastern crater is 59 feet (18 meters) wide and the western crater is 52.5 feet (16 m) wide. Had NASA’s LRO been placed to capture shock images, it would have recorded a lunar dust eruption at a height of hundreds of miles.
Scientists are still hypothesizing what could have created two craters. One possibility is that the crater was formed by debris with two large chunks on each end — this scenario would be unusual, but a NASA representative said.
According to the statement, “Usually used rockets have mass concentrated at the end of the motor. The rest of the rocket’s stages consist primarily of empty fuel tanks.”
Is it really a Chang’e 5-T1 booster?
Rocket boosters are likely to collapse completely on impact, so it is uncertain whether investigating craters will provide a great clue to their controversial origin. However, some astronomers believe that most of the mysteries have already been solved.gray I wrote on his blog Immediately after the image was published, it was discovered that the object was “very definitively identified as Chang’e 5-T1 booster.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s no other way it can be,” Gray told Live Science. “At this point, nothing is more certain than this.”
Gray made the first prediction that it would collide with the Moon after the controversial debris was discovered rolling down the universe in March 2015. This object (tentative name WE0913A) was first glimpsed by the Catalina Sky Survey, a series of telescopes near Tucson. Arizona scans our space neighborhood in search of dangerous asteroids that could collide with Earth.But the WE0913A wasn’t in orbit Sun,like asteroid Probably, it was orbiting the earth instead. Gray suspected that the object was man-made.
After first misidentifying the mysterious debris as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Gray went back to the data and found that another spacecraft almost matched the orbit of the debris towards the Moon. This is the upper part of the Chang’e 5-T1 mission in China. , Launched in October 2014 as part of a preliminary mission to send back test capsules to the Moon.
Chinese foreign ministry officials denied that space debris belonged to them and claimed that Chang’e 5 rocket had already burned out on its return trip to Earth in 2014. A rocket also designated for the 2020 mission, the former hitting the moon. March 1, US Department of Defense Space Command to Track Low Earth Orbit Space Debris, Issue a statement China’s 2014 rocket has never been out of orbit.
Gray believes that his orbital data, which almost perfectly matches the first orbit of the Chinese rocket, is decisive.
“It’s in orbit for so many lunar missions. That trend means we’ve headed over China in the past. We’ve been heading east like China’s lunar missions. Estimated launch The time is less than 20. Minutes of the 嫦娥 5-T1 rocket. “
According to Gray, a ham radio satellite (or “CubeSat”) was attached to Chang’e 5-T1 for the first 19 days of flight, and the orbital data returned from that satellite was the current orbit of rocket debris. Exact match. .. Some have identified important clues to support Gray’s conclusions. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near-Earth Astronomical Research confirmed Gray’s analysis of orbital data, and the Arizona University team analyzed the light spectrum reflected by the paint of the colliding debris. Identified the rocket as part of the mission. ..
This is the first space debris to unintentionally collide with the moon, but this is not the first time an artificial satellite has collided with the moon. In 2009, NASA’s lunar crater observation and sensing satellites were deliberately launched into the lunar South Pole at 5,600 mph (9,000 km / h), providing a plume that would allow scientists to detect the chemical features of water ice. Unleashed. NASA also threw the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket on the moon and disposed of it.
Gray said the turmoil surrounding the object’s identity underscores the true need of space exploration agencies and private companies to develop better procedures for tracking rockets into deep space (). This also prevents such objects from being mistaken for Earth-threatening asteroids).
“From my selfish point of view, it will help us track asteroids better,” Gray said. “The considerations given to low earth orbit satellites do not apply to high orbit satellites because people thought it was not really a problem. My hope is that the United States will return to the Moon and other countries. I’m thinking about it. Sending things there may change that attitude. “
Originally published on Live Science.
The rocket colliding with the moon somehow punched out two craters, NASA says.
Source link The rocket colliding with the moon somehow punched out two craters, NASA says.
