The US space agency has published pictures of the place on the moon where the Russian space station Luna-25 probably crashed: a new crater is visible there.
Source: US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA)
Details: On August 20, the Roscosmos Corporation reported that the Russian station Luna-25 collided with the Moon and ceased to exist. The reason is “emergency”.
On August 21, Roskosmos published an assessment of the crash site.
On August 22, the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) team and the LRO Mission Operations team were able to develop and send commands to the LRO spacecraft to take pictures of the crash site.
On August 24 the pictures were taken.
The LROC team compared images taken before the impact and a sequence of images taken after it and found a small new crater.
A new crater on the moon: it is likely that the Russian station Luna-25 crashed there
NASA
Prior to this, this site was last photographed in June 2022. Therefore, the crater formed sometime after this date.
Since this new crater is located close to the supposed point of impact with Luna 25, the LRO team is inclined to believe that it was the result of the failure of the Russian mission, and not from a natural factor.
4x magnified image of the Luna-25 impact site from LRO
NASA
The new crater has a diameter of about 10 meters and is located at 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude at an altitude of about minus 360 meters.
The impact point was on the steep (more than 20 degrees) inner rim of Ponteculan G crater, about 400 kilometers from Luna 25’s planned landing site at 69.545 degrees south latitude, 43.544 degrees east longitude.
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2023-09-01 08:59:19
