NASA Spots A ‘Mystery’ Double Crater Of Unknown Rocket On The Moon

NASA has located the impact location of an unidentified "out-of-control" rocket that crashed into the far side of the moon recently.

Images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on May 25 showed a twin crater caused by the impact of the rocket.

While the identity of the rocket body remains "unclear," NASA announced last week that the crater is really comprised of "two craters" — an 18-meter-diameter crater in the east overlaid on a 16-meter-diameter crater in the west.

According to Mark Robinson, chief investigator of the LRO Camera team, the new data may imply that the rocket body that impacted the lunar surface had enormous masses at each end.

“Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may help to indicate its identity,” Dr Robinson said.

According to researchers, the bulk of a typically spent rocket is concentrated at the engine end, whereas the remainder of the rocket stage comprises mostly of an empty fuel tank.

The origin of the rocket body is still unknown, but the newly revealed dual nature of the crater may assist determine its identification.

NASA reported in a blog post that no previous rocket body crashes on the Moon resulted in the formation of twin craters.

According to some space specialists, if the impact had occurred at a shallow angle, a twin crater may have been formed.

Initially, it was believed that the object, which traveled through space at almost 60,000 mph, was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster.

However, experts from the University of Arizona in the United States, led by Vishnu Reddy, who extensively monitored the expended rocket's rotation and light reflection speculated that it may have originated in China. 

As of now no country on Earth has claimed that the rocket belongs to them, which raises even more serious questions that need to be answered.

Reference(s): NASA