[PHOTO] NASA Captures Two Craters Formed After Rogue Rocket Slammed Into the Lunar Surface

On March 4, a rocket body was reported to crash into the lunar surface, and now, astronomers announced that they'd found the debris.

A rocket that Crash into the Moon Has Been Found

According to Mashable, in early 2022, the calculations of astronomers suggested that the impact of the rocket would happen in the size of the Hertzsprung Crater, which is a 354-mile wide or 570 kilometers feature on the side of the moon.

The researchers from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission announced on Thursday, June 23, that the spacecraft had spotted the rogue rocket in the Hertzsprung crater.

Images from LRO show that the impact of the rogue rocket created two craters, the one in the east created a 59-feet or 18-meter crater, while the one in the west created a 52-feet or 16-meter crater.

Mark Robinson of Arizona State University stated that the double crater was "unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had massive masses."

Robinson added that a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end, while the rest of the rocket stage consists of an empty fuel tank. He also said that the origin of the rocket body is still uncertain, and the nature of the crater will help them identify it.

The early speculation is that the moon-crashing rocket was caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory or DSCOVR mission for NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2015.

However, further observations from astronomers and their calculations changed their speculation, leading many of them to conclude that the rocket body was part of the Long March 3 booster that launched China's Chang'e 5T1 mission around the moon back in 2014. China has since denied that claim.

History of Rocket Bodies on the Moon

Rocket bodies have crashed into the moon's surface before. According to Space.com, NASA steered the third stage of Saturn V rockets into the moon several times during the Apollo program.

The March 4 event was the first known time that a rocket body crashed into the moon's surface by accident, while the other pieces of space hardware slammed into the moon while trying to land.

None of the Saturn V impacts created double craters on the moon like the one created by the March 4 crash.

Also, the Saturn V craters are more than 115 feet or 35 meters wide, while the new double crater is 95 feet or 29 meters wide across at its widest point.

According to Wired, it took 44 years before the crash site of the Saturn V stage-three booster was located. The site was identified by Jeff Plescia, a scientist from Johns Hopkins University, who is a known expert in finding objects that have been lost in space.

NASA used the rocket booster to perform seismic measurements during the Apollo 16 mission after the crew was propelled safely into orbit. The mission was the fifth time that humans set foot on the moon and were able to return safely to Earth.

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Written by Sophie Webster