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02-07-2022
WASHINGTON: New images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showed a mysterious rocket crashed into the far side of the moon, leaving behind it a double crater.
NASA shared in a press release that the collision caused two overlapping impact sites. One crater measures 59 feet and another 52.5 feet.
Astronomers were already expecting an impact after they discovered an unidentified space object on a collision course with the moon. However, they were not expecting a double crater.
“No other rocket body impacts on the moon created double craters,” the space agency said in the press release.
NASA said that the double crater can be caused by a rocket that has large masses on both its ends.
However, “a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank,” explained NASA.
The agency believes, however, that the mass on both ends of the rocket may help them identify its origin.
The astronomer who first discovered the uncanny object and alerted NASA, Bill Gray, said in a blog Project Pluto: “I must confess that I’d naively thought it would be easier to find and would have been located shortly after impact.”
So far, no country or agency has taken any responsibility for the collision. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
