NASA Finds Twin Crater on Moon Caused by Mysterious Rocket; Who Is Responsible for It?

A rocket from an unknown country that struck the moon earlier this year and caused a twin crater on the surface was described by NASA as an unexpected feat.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which gathers data on the moon, discovered two craters following the "mystery rocket body" collision with the moon on March 4, the space agency said.

It made two craters, one on the east with a diameter of about 18 meters and one on the west with a diameter of about 16 meters.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spots Rocket Impact Site on Moon

(Photo : NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
A rocket body impacted the Moon on March 4, 2022, near Hertzsprung crater, creating a double crater roughly 28 meters wide in the longest dimension. LROC NAC M1407760984R; image enlarged 3x

NASA Says Nobody Claimed The Responsibility For Moon's New Double Crater

Although a new "double crater" has formed on the moon, no country has claimed responsibility for the hit.

According to a news report by Complex, the images released by NASA show what it claims to be a "double crater" made on the moon's surface by an unnamed spacecraft.

In a statement issued on June 24, the space agency said astronomers had first identified a "rocket body" on course to strike the moon in late 2021.

After a rocket body impacted the Moon last year, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to snap a surprising view of the impact site. Unexpectedly, the crater is actually two craters and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end: https://t.co/WtMAFrNkUw pic.twitter.com/hcoYPxlm8z
— NASA 360 (@NASA360) June 27, 2022

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Later, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, took pictures of the aforementioned twin crater. The hit occurred in March, which has been confirmed.

According to NASA, the unexpected twin crater might indicate that the rocket body had weighty ends. A spent rocket stage's bulk is typically concentrated at the motor end and mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. The rocket body's identification, whose origin is still unknown, may be revealed by the crater's dual nature.

Astronomer Points Out What Probably Caused The Issue

Astronomer Bill Gray mentioned in a HuffPost report that the object might be the "spent top stage" of China's Chang'e 5-T1 rocket. Gray pointed out this claim in an interview with Live Science.

Gray predicted that the rocket's wreckage would hit the moon after observing it in space in 2015, according to Live Science.

According to the news source, the astronaut originally recognized the rocket debris as coming from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket but then identified it as coming from a Chinese rocket in 2014.

Chinese officials claimed that the rocket "burned up" and returned to Earth in 2014, in contrast to the U.S. Department of Defense's Orbit Command, which reported that the rocket was still in space in March.

Spacecrafts Causing Moon Crater

The moon's two craters, according to NASA, were not caused by any previous rocket body collisions. The four Apollo SIV-B craters (Apollos 13, 14, 15, 17) were significantly larger than each of the double craters and had very uneven shapes (more than 35 meters). The greatest width (29 meters) of the twin crater on the mystery rocket body was comparable to the S-IVBs.

The craters that Apollo 13, 14, 15, and 17 produced are seen below:

(Photo : NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
These four images show craters formed by impacts of the Apollo SIV-B stages: crater diameters range from 35 to 40 meters (38.2 to 43.7 yards) in the longest dimension.

The space agency claims that since LRO's seven powerful sensors were sent into orbit on June 18, 2009, they have collected a vast amount of data that has substantially improved our understanding of the moon. The Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA, situated in Greenbelt, Maryland, is in charge of it for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Together with international and private partners, NASA is returning to the moon to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and possibilities.