A LARGE PIECE OF SPACE ROCKET DEBRIS IS BELIEVED TO HAVE CRASHED INTO THE MOON.
Astronomers believe the rocket fragment, which experts say originated in China, collided with the lunar surface in the early hours of March 4. We won’t know for sure if it hit the Moon until two satellites orbiting the Moon pass over the potential impact site. These satellites could photograph any crater left by the collision. Because the rocket was on its way to collide with the dark side of the Moon, “live” coverage of the event was not possible. Experts have now created a physics-based simulation video that shows how the crash most likely occurred. AGI, an Ansys Company, uploaded the video to YouTube.
“Alternative wide view of the Chang’e booster impact with the Moon on March 4th, 2022,” the caption simply states. Bill Gray, the creator of the popular Project Pluto software for tracking near-Earth objects, was the first to notice the rocket component. He reported that the junk was a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015 by Elon Musk’s team.
Bill later retracted his claim, claiming that the rocket part most likely belonged to China. China has since denied the accusation, despite the fact that the rocket piece is widely assumed to be the third stage booster from a Long March 3C rocket. In October 2014, this rocket was used to launch China’s Change’e 5-T1 spacecraft. Since then, the rocket debris has been circling the Earth and the Moon in an erratic orbit. The simulation video from AGI shows how the crash was likely powerful enough to create a crater on the Moon. The researchers used software known as the Systems Tool Kit (STK) and the Orbit Determination Tool Kit (ODTK), which were previously used by defence agencies to simulate missions.
In other news, Nasa has revealed some crucial dates for Moon missions that will take place this year. According to scientists, pulverising asteroids may be humanity’s only chance of avoiding a similar doomsday event to the dinosaurs. We also investigated what would happen if you died in space.
