The separation of the rocket’s phase will be the cause of the collision, which should touch the moon on Friday. The first in history.
Moon Crash Alert! At 2:45 p.m., an unidentified flying object will collide with the other side of our satellite. This object may be rocket debris, but scientists have not yet been able to determine its exact nature. “Let’s be very frankChristophe Bonal launches With our colleagues from franceinfoExpert at the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), We don’t even know if it was a missile piece.”
The astronomer behind Bill Gray’s discovery initially thought this was the upper stage of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket, which was launched in 2015. He then changed his mind, stating that it was instead the upper stage of China’s Chang’e 5-T1 rocket. This was later denied by Beijing.
Far from a disaster scenario
The moon is used to collide with meteors, but this will be the first time debris of Earth origin has hit the satellite, not counting the failed lunar missions. Without consequences, however, Christophe Bonal is reassured. “The surface of the moon is the equivalent of Africa. So we have to imagine we have the equivalent of a car crashing in Africa. We are very far from a disaster scenario.”
The researchers expect the crash, which sped up at 9,300 km/h, to spew dust for hundreds of kilometers as it forms a crater 10 to 20 meters in diameter. Unfortunately, no mission should be able to attend the live event. A Chinese rover surveying the far side of the Moon will be very far from the impact site. The LRO and Chandrayaan-2 space probes will also be out of reach.
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