It’s possible that an out-of-control rocket the size of a school bus has hit the moon by now.
According to astronomers, the booster rocket was Set to reach the surface of the moon at about 7.25 a.m. ET (12:25 GMT) after spending nearly eight years stumbling across space.
This would likely be the first time a man-made object has hit another space object without being directed there, but we won’t know it hit the moon for sure until two lunar-orbiting satellites pass over the potential impact site and photograph any crater. that resulted from the collision, the BBC mentioned.
The Rocket part was first spotted by Bill Gray, who writes Popular Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
He stated that the scrap was a SpaceX The Falcon 9 upper stage was launched from Florida by Team Elon Musk in February 2015.
However, Bell later retracted his claim and said that the missile part most likely belonged to him China. China has since denied the accusation.
Read the Moon Rocket Crash Live Blog for the latest news and updates…
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How far is the moon?
The average distance between Earth and the Moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km), according to NASA.
This means that it is about 30 km from Earth.
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Biological contamination is possible
There is the potential for biocontamination at the crash site, according to David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at the Open University in the UK.
This is because missile parts are not sterile when launched.
“Most of the microbes will die, but maybe not all of them. They may not reproduce, but it’s a very small risk,” he said. CNN.
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The crater will not be the first on the moon
If the rocket creates a crater on the moon’s surface from the impact, it will not be the only crater on the moon’s surface, CNN pointed out.
The Moon does not have a protective atmosphere, so craters occur naturally when objects such as asteroids collide with it on a regular basis.
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The collision wouldn’t be ‘noticeable’
“If it were observable – which unfortunately it won’t – you would see big flashes, dust, bits of decaying rockets, pebbles and boulders thrown in, some for hundreds of kilometres,” said Bill Gray. CNN Missile booster and its imminent collision with the moon.
Gray was the first to discover the trajectory of the rocket and wrote the folklore Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
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How to send your name around the moon
You need to go to the official NASA website for Artemis mission.
This is available here.
You need to enter your name and a custom PIN, which will generate your boarding pass.
The PIN should consist of 4 to 7 digits.
Remember your PIN, as this will allow you to access your boarding pass in the future.
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Exact collision time
The rocket likely hit the moon at 12:25:58 UTC on March 4, 2022, Forbes mentioned.
The four-ton rocket portion likely hit the lunar surface at about 5,700 miles per hour.
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European Space Agency comments
The European Space Agency has commented on the possible collision between the booster rocket and the lunar surface before it could happen.
“This still-developing discovery underscores the need for enhanced space tracking, and greater data sharing among spacecraft operators, launch providers, and the astronomy and space observation communities,” Agency Books.
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Has space junk ever hit the moon?
As part of the LCROSS mission, in 2009 NASA smashed a booster rocket into the Moon in hopes of learning something from the debris it left behind.
“In essence, this LCROSS is ‘free’…except that we probably won’t see the effect,” Bill Gray, who wrote Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects, he wrote in January.
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The effect will not be visible
Missile part checked hit the moon On March 4, it will leave a crater about 65 feet in diameter on the surface but unfortunately, the impact will not be able to be seen live as the degraded rocket part is expected to hit the far side of the Moon – the part that faces away from Earth.
Instead, astronomers will rely on images taken by satellites including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what happens after the collision.
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Who predicted the collision, continue
“In 2015, (mis)identified this object as 2015-007B, the second stage of the DSCOVR spacecraft,” Gray wrote on February 12.
“We now have good evidence that it is in fact definitely65B, the Chang’e 5-T1 moon mission booster.”
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Who predicted the collision?
In January, space trackers calculated that a piece of man-made debris was on its way hit the moon It was first spotted by Bill Gray, who writes Popular Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
He stated that the junk was a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
She was on a mission to deploy an Earth observation satellite called DSCOVR for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
However, Gray later retracted his claim and said the missile part likely belonged to China, and China has since denied the accusation.
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intrinsic uncertainty
Professor Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said: BBC News He agrees with Gray’s reassessment that the missile part most likely belongs to China instead.
He said there is a lot of “fundamental uncertainty” in identifying space debris and errors in identification can occur.
“We rely on a small handful of volunteers who do this on their own time,” he told the BBC.
“So there is limited scope for cross-checking.”
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Impact on the moon
The collision of the rocket and the moon is expected to produce a cloud of debris and leave a small crater behind.
However, no serious damage is expected.
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What is a booster missile?
The object may have been part of a rocket that launched a small Chinese spacecraft, called Chang’e 5-T1, toward the moon in 2014.
Bill Gray, who writes the popular Near-Earth Object tracking program Project Pluto, originally reported that the remnants were a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
However, Bell later retracted his claim and said the missile part likely belonged to China instead.
China has since denied the accusation.
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Where did the missile fall?
The A collision is possible On the other side of the moon.
The one-ton mass of space junk was previously traveling at about 2.6 kilometers per second.
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The vehicle may hit near the crater of the volcano
The missile may have specifically crashed near a crater called Hertzsprung, according to Forbes.
It’s on the far side of the Moon, so no impact will be visible from Earth.
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Moon Crash Confusion
People on social media were confused on Friday about the rocket part, and whether or not it actually crashed on the moon.
“Does anyone know if the #moon accident happened?” One person wrote.
“Isn’t something hitting the moon today?? 🌝🤔” someone else chirp.
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Gray defends ‘simple steps’
What confusion about Missile part stray Explains that there must be better tracking of junk in deep space, Bill Gray, who writes Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
“Many spacecraft are now in high orbits, and some will take crews to the moon,” Gray said.
“This junk will not just be a nuisance to a small group of astronomers.”
“A few fairly simple steps can help a lot.”
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Does the missile belong to China?
China said last week that missile part not them.
Bill Gray who writes the popular Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects, it is still believed to be an old rocket part from a lunar mission dating back to 2014.
NASA and other experts have corroborated his claims.
They believe it is from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, which was used to test sample-return technology from the Moon.
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China’s denial
“According to China’s monitoring, the upper stage of the Chang’e-5 mission missile has fallen through the Earth’s atmosphere in a safe manner and completely burned up,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, about the mysterious object. On its way to the moon.
However, experts note that China referred to the Chang’e-5 mission, not the similarly named Chang’e 5-T1 mission at its core.
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What is the moon made of?
The crust covering The surface of the Moon is about 42 miles (70 kilometers) thick on average.
Due to all the massive blows the Moon has taken, the outer portion of the crust is fragmented and mixed, with the shattered region giving way to intact material below about 6 miles (9.6 km) deep.
The moon’s surface is made up of about 43 percent oxygen, 20 percent silicon, 19 percent magnesium, 10 percent iron, 3 percent calcium, 3 percent aluminum, 0.42 percent chromium, 0.18 percent titanium, 0.12 percent manganese by weight.
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What is the moon made of?
The moon’s core is likely very small, accounting for only one to two percent of the moon’s mass and about 420 miles (680 kilometers) in diameter, according to Space.com.
It is likely primarily iron, although it may also contain a lot of sulfur and other minerals.
The moon’s rocky mantle is 825 miles (1,330 kilometers) deep and consists of iron-dense rocks and magnesium-rich rocks.
For over a billion years, magma rose from the mantle to the surface and erupted volcanically, from at least four billion years ago to less than three billion years ago.
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The moon has no atmosphere
This means that the lunar surface is exposed to cosmic rays, meteors, and solar winds, and is exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations.
Since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, no sound can be heard, and the sky is always dark.
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Evidence of crash will be ‘lost’
There’s no way to see the accident happening in real time, and we won’t know it for sure until satellites orbiting the Moon send back images of a potential crash site.
It is also possible that the booster part of the rocket broke into thousands of pieces, and BBC mentioned.
Therefore, a lot of physical evidence about its source will be lost as well.
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Missile’s last moments
according to BBC.
Two satellites orbiting the Moon will eventually provide evidence of a crash after they pass over the potential impact site.
The satellites will then photograph the crater, which is likely to have resulted from the impact.
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