The image sent back to Earth by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) reveals a mysterious hole that resembles a small newly-formed crater on the dark side of the Moon.
The photo, recently released by NASA and taken by the LRO on May 25, shows not just a solitary hole, but what appears to be a “double crater”, which astronomers have concluded must have been caused by the impact of a rocket.
Moon photo showing mysterious hole – (Image: LRO/NASA)
According to Science Alert, Dr. Mark Robinson, the principal investigator for the LRO Camera team, stated that the double crater consists of an 18-meter-wide hole on the eastern side overlapping a 16-meter-wide hole on the western side, caused by a large object striking the Moon, which had a significant weight difference at both ends.
“Typically, a used rocket has its mass concentrated at the engine section, while the rest mainly consists of an empty fuel tank” – he noted. This does not help identify the rocket but indicates that the “attacker” of the Moon is indeed a rocket.
Several “suspects” have been pointed out since initial data indicated that a large object was about to crash into the Moon in early March 2022, as tracked by a software created by independent planetary scientist Bill Gray.
The first suspect was identified as the upper stage of a SpaceX rocket, which launched NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) into space in 2015.
However, feedback from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) indicated that the orbit of the SpaceX rocket and DSCOVR could not bring any debris toward the Moon. Bill Gray subsequently “dug” into his data and confirmed this.
Further analysis led Bill Gray to suspect the Chang’e 5-T1 mission from China, launched in 2014, which laid the groundwork for Chang’e 5, the spacecraft that successfully returned lunar samples to Earth in 2020.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who is part of the team operating NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, also agreed that it was the Chang’e 5-T1.
However, a few days later, the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared that it was not their rocket, as the entire rocket in question was believed to have plunged into the sea shortly after launch.
Thus, the identity of the culprit that caused the hole on the Moon remains a topic of ongoing debate.
