JAKARTA – A boost rocket hit the surface of the Moon to form a large crater. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has also found the location of the crash that occurred on March 4, 2022.
However, oddly enough, there was not only one new crater, but two. This finding is also a big question mark “why did this happen? Where did the second crater appear?” poses a new mystery to the astronomers involved.
Reporting from ScienceAlert, Tuesday (28/6/2022), the formation of craters on the surface of the Moon due to collisions with certain objects does allow the creation of craters. However, for two craters to appear at once, in this case it seems impossible.
Astronomer Bill Gray, who first discovered the mysterious crater, explained that the rocket’s thrusters did not fall at such a low angle.
He said the rocket thrusters entered about 15 degrees from the vertical. According to him in theory this event will not create two craters.
Moreover, the first and second craters have almost the same width. Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the LRO Camera team, thinks that the formation of this double crater may have resulted from an object with a different mass of mass at each end.
“Usually a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor tip, the rest of the rocket stage consists mainly of empty fuel tanks. Since the origin of the rocket body is still uncertain, the dual nature of the crater can help pinpoint its identity,” he said.
However, the investigation of the second crater is still ongoing. Astronomer Bill Gray is still digging up the data he finds. How could this happen? There’s still a long way to go. The most likely is that two rockets fell.
Gray said, it could be that the second crater was formed due to the fall of China’s Chang’e 5-T1 rocket which was carrying out a technology demonstration mission since 2014.
However, this is also still in doubt because China itself has just announced that it will carry out a follow-up mission. Because China is carrying out a follow-up mission, it means that there are no problems with the Chinese rockets.
China’s foreign minister has also denied it and said if the rocket had indeed fallen it would not have fallen to the Moon, because it was already in orbit. The rocket will immediately fall into the sea.
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