Part of a discarded SpaceX rocket is believed to have crashed into the moon at 8700 kilometres per hour earlier this morning. Astronomers around the world trained their telescopes on the predicted site of the impact in the hope of capturing images and eking some useful science out of the accidental collision.
The craft is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched in January last year carrying the Hakuto-R spacecraft from commercial company ispace 鈥� which, ironically, also crashed into the moon during an unsuccessful landing attempt.
It is thought that the almost 14-metre-long, 4000-kilogram Falcon upper stage impacted the moon at 5.35am BST today. The crash was predicted to occur close to Einstein crater, which would place it towards the edge of the visible moon from Earth.
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at the University of Leicester, UK, says that telescopes around the world were trained on the site of the impact and that images of the area before and after impact will emerge soon. Lunar orbiters from South Korea and the US will also observe the impact site.
NASA predicts that the impact will have created a crater that is 18 metres wide and 4 metres deep.
鈥淚t is not a good thing to be randomly sending debris into the moon,鈥� says Sargeant. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not something we should be making a habit of. What if it hit a site of special interest? What if it caused damage to the historical Apollo landers?鈥�
Both NASA and the European Space Agency are required to take the end of a spacecraft鈥檚 life into account before a mission launches, ensuring that there is a plan and enough fuel to safely deorbit it. Commercial companies aren鈥檛 covered by the same rules, says Sargeant, although efforts to introduce such requirements are under way.
When SpaceX launched the Falcon in question, the heavy payload required more thrust than usual, meaning that the rocket ended up floating uncontrollably in space. It eventually fell into an orbit that unintentionally put it on a collision course with the moon.
But Sargeant says that some science can be salvaged from the event, with astronomers likely to capture rare images of a moon crater being created and the lunar regolith plumes ejected from the impact.
at the Macau University of Science and Technology, China, says that all planetary surfaces should ideally be kept as pristine as is feasible 鈥� without hindering exploration 鈥� but that the moon has already been impacted by decades of US, Soviet and Russian, Chinese, Indian, Israeli and other nations鈥� missions, as well as millions of years of asteroid impacts.
鈥淩ockets have been landing, crashing and taking off from the surface for decades now,鈥� says Bugiolacchi. A controlled crash may even be welcomed by planetary scientists, he says. 鈥淜nowing the projectile鈥檚 mass, impact velocity, angle and trajectory provide invaluable data on surface evolution. The primary agent shaping most planetary surfaces is high-velocity impacts. Normally, these events are entirely random in terms of physical properties and dynamics.鈥�
鈥淭he moon already has about 100 million natural impact craters of the size expected to be made by this crash, so such a crash will hardly make a difference,鈥� says at the Open University, UK. 鈥淚鈥檇 be happy with a deliberate collision into the moon if it were done with a science aim and was set up so as to be studied to learn about the moon鈥檚 interior or surface composition. However, this crash is accidental and reckless.鈥�
The science of space exploration and astronomy: US
Take off on a quest through the past, present and future of space exploration across the US. Discover the first pioneering rockets, iconic missions, space stations and the emerging commercial space tourism industry.
