The Moon has a new crater or two

A rocket body impacted the Moon on 04 March 2022 near Hertzsprung crater,

creating a double crater roughly 28 meters wide in the longest dimension. LROC NAC M1407760984R enlarged 3x [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

On March 4, 2022, a rocket booster crashed into the Moon. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) predicted the impact.

Bill Gray, the developer of Project Pluto, calculated a trajectory in agreement with JPL using his astronomical software.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, photographed the crater, and the images have left scientists puzzled.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit.[6][7] Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions to the Moon.[8] Its detailed mapping program is identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technologies.[9][10]

Launched on June 18, 2009,[11] in conjunction with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), as the vanguard of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program,[12] LRO was the first United States mission to the Moon in over ten years.[13] LRO and LCROSS were launched as part of the United States' Vision for Space Exploration program.

The probe has made a 3-D map of the Moon's surface at 100-meter resolution and 98.2% coverage (excluding polar areas in deep shadow), including 0.5-meter resolution images of Apollo landing sites.The first images from LRO were published on July 2, 2009, showing a region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).

The total cost of the mission is reported as US$583 million, of which $504 million pertains to the main LRO probe and $79 million to the LCROSS satellite.As of 2019, LRO has enough fuel to continue operations for at least seven more years, and NASA expects to continue utilizing LRO's reconnaissance capabilities to identify sites for lunar landers well into the 2020s.~Wikipedia

Forecasts by both JPL and Gray had the space debris striking the lunar surface on March 4, 2022, at 7:25 a.m. Eastern time. The timing predictions proved accurate within minutes. Pinpointing where the crash would happen proved to be more challenging.

"The problem was that spacecraft and space junk are gently pushed by sunlight, in a way that depends on how the objects are oriented as they tumble end over end," said Gray in an email to MetaSellar.

"It's a small push, but over the four weeks, we knew it could push the object a dozen or so kilometers one way or the other, in a poorly determined direction. It's a bit like predicting where an empty trash bag will go in a windstorm. You know it'll get blown downwind, but not exactly where it'll go."

The LROC found the impact crater eight km from where JPL predicted and about 16 km from Gray's calculations.

"The Arizona State University Team has done an excellent job in identifying the object," Mark Robinson, professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, told MetaStellar in a phone interview.

Using spectral analysis, the ASU team determined the light reflected from the object and that the spectra corresponded with similar Chinese rockets. Therefore, there is a high degree of certainty that the errant space debris is of Chinese origin. "Which is not specific enough to say which Chinese lunar booster it is."

Gray used a technique that "plays back" the object's trajectory and matched it closely to the specific Chang'e 5-T1 mission, launched at 18:00 UTC on 2014 October 23.

Orbital data by Jonathan McDowell on his website describes an amateur radio CubeSat launched as a payload on Chang'e 5-T1 closely matching the expected orbit, increasing the credibility of the proof.

The investigation discovered another anomaly. The resultant surface deformation is not one but two craters overlapping each other. "I'm a little puzzled by the double crater appearance. But I am in no way an expert on high-speed impacts, except to know that they can have some very strange results," said Gray

"Why has it created two craters? Everyone is pretty much puzzled over that one." Conjecturing that there may have been additional mass added to the booster, perhaps to simulate lunar descent and ascent modules that have not been accounted for.

This one impact has created discussion in the media. It is not, however, the first rocket booster to hit the Moon. Specifically, Apollo S-IVB 13,14,15,17 left their marks on the lunar surface. Each crash left a single crater.

This new crater, on the far side of the Moon, will continue to receive additional attention from scientists determined to unravel the whole story and physics behind the crash and the origins of the double crater.

This article was previously published: https://www.metastellar.com/nonfiction/news/scientists-puzzled-by-double-crater-on-the-moon/

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