Washington, March 5: After seven-year of space odyssey, a three-tonne piece of Chinese rocket debris slammed into the Moon, creating a 65 feet wide crater on the lunar surface, the media reported. According to experts, the event took place at 7:25 a.m. EST on the lunar far side, on Friday, Space.com reported. As a result, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter could not get a look at the crash.
"We certainly have an interest in finding the impact crater and will attempt to do so over the coming weeks and months," John Keller, the deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, emailed to The Verge in a statement. "We will not be near the impact site when it takes place so we won't be able to directly observe it. The onboard narrow-angle cameras have sufficient resolution to detect the crater but the Moon is full of fresh impact craters, so positive identification is based on before and after images under similar lighting conditions, he added. Mysterious Rocket Part To Crash Into Moon; Here's All You Need To Know.
The doomed space debris was first reported by Bill Gray, an astronomer running Project Pluto. In his blogpost, Gray first claimed that the debris is from billionaire Elon Musk owned SpaceX rocket. But later Gray predicted that the object is a leftover piece of a Chinese rocket, specifically a Long March 3C that launched China's Chang'e 5-T1 mission to the Moon. But China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the claim, Space News reported.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2022 02:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).