Unusual crater discovered on the Moon caused by a mysterious rocket plunge

An unknown rocket has crashed into the Moon, leaving an unusual crater.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently detected a rocket of unknown origin that crashed into the Moon, leaving an unusual crater.

NASA has detected a double crater created when a mysterious rocket crashed into the Moon. (Image: Getty Images)

American astronomers noted that the rocket body launched towards the Moon late last year, and it finally collided with Earth's only natural satellite on March 4, creating the formation of a crater. unusual double volcano.

According to a press release published by NASA on June 29, the double crater shows the rocket's body is "massive at each end." It consists of a crater to the east about 18 meters in diameter, located atop a crater to the west about 16 meters in diameter.

This crater is very unusual, because no previous collision of the rocket body onto the Moon created a double crater. The four Apollo SIV-B craters are larger than the recent impact at maximum width, between 35 and 40 meters.

NASA did not mention the type of rocket its orbiter detected in the aforementioned press release. But before that, in February, American astronomer Bill Gray made the comment that it was the booster stage of the rocket participating in China's Chang'e 5-T1 lunar mission, launched in October / 2014. Gray initially misidentified this as a stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX.

The Chang'e-5 (Hang Nga 5) probe landed on the Moon in December 2020, collecting some rocks for testing on Earth. This mission detected water molecules present at rates up to 180 parts per million in some areas of the Moon.

Several countries have landed or planned missions to the Moon in recent months. Russia has scheduled the Luna-25 lunar lander mission for September, according to an announcement last month by the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, while the US is aiming for a manned lunar mission. drive the Artemis in 2024.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon warned that growing cooperation between Russia and China in space risks leading to dominance of the two countries in the field. The US is competing with Russia and China to build the first lunar base, with the dream of exploiting potential mineral resources from Earth's only satellite and even having the ability to build reactors. nucleus on it.