It’s possible that an out-of-control rocket the size of a school bus has hit the moon by now.
According to astronomers, a booster rocket was scheduled to hit the lunar surface at around 7.25 a.m. ET (12:25 GMT) after spending nearly eight years stumbling across space.
This would likely be the first time a man-made object has hit another space object without being directed there, but we won’t know it hit the moon for sure until two lunar-orbiting satellites pass over the potential impact site and photograph any crater. that resulted from the collision, the BBC mentioned.
The rocket part was first spotted by Bill Gray, who wrote the popular Project Pluto tracking program for near-Earth objects.
He stated that the junk was an upper stage of SpaceX Falcon 9 launched by Elon Musk’s team from Florida in February 2015.
However, Bell later retracted his claim and said the missile part most likely belonged to China. China has since denied the accusation.
Read the Moon Rocket Crash Live Blog for the latest news and updates…
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The effect will not be visible
The rocket segment was detected to collide with the moon on March 4, which will leave a crater about 65 feet in diameter on the surface, but unfortunately, the impact will not be visible live as the deteriorating rocket segment is expected to hit the far side of the moon – the part that faces far from Earth.
Instead, astronomers will rely on images taken by satellites including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what happens after the collision.
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Initial phases of the moon
out of place The eight phases of the moononly four of them are considered essential (complete, first, new, third).
Each of the four cardinal phases lasts for about a week, making the full moon cycle to last for about a month.
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What are the phases of the moon?
There are eight phases of the moon:
- full moon
- Waxing humps
- First Quarter
- morning crescent
- new Moon
- crescent moon retreat
- Third quarter
- Wanning Gibbs
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Explanation: How was the moon created
The giant effect theory is the most widely accepted today.
It is suggested that the Moon formed during a collision between Earth and another small planet, the size of Mars.
Debris from this collision gathered in orbit around the Earth to form the Moon.
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What else collides with the moon, part 3
The US space agency was also responsible for Smash items into the moon.
For example, Apollo 10 dropped half of the Snoopy module on the Moon in May 1969.
NASA also intentionally dropped the LCROSS mission on the Moon in 2009.
Fortunately, the Moon is unlikely to have suffered much from all of these accidents, but there are a few craters as a result of the collisions.
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What hit the moon, go on
Every mission on the moon comes with risks Something collided with the moonAnd, exactly this thing happened with India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander, also called Vikram.
The lander lost contact with Earth and crashed onto the moon’s surface in September 2019 even though it was supposed to land softly on the moon’s south pole.
However, it crashed by accident.
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What else hit the moon?
The moon was a victim Multiple space debris crash over time.
The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 is believed to be the first man-made spacecraft to hit the moon, for example.
This happened in 1959, eight months after the failure of the Luna 1 mission.
Luna 1 was supposed to reach the moon but missed it, still floating in space somewhere.
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Moon Crash Confusion
People on social media were confused on Friday about the rocket part, and whether or not it actually crashed on the moon.
“Does anyone know if the #moon accident happened?” One person wrote.
“Isn’t something hitting the moon today?? 🌝🤔” someone else chirp.
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NASA is preparing for a unique event
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has monitored the outer atmosphere of the moon for any changes caused by the impact of the booster rocket on the moon, Space.com mentioned.
LRO “will not be in a position to monitor the impact as it occurs. However, the mission team is evaluating whether it can make observations of any changes to the lunar environment associated with the impact and then identify the crater formed by the impact later,” NASA officials said in a statement provided. For Inside Outer Space and cited by Space.com
“This unique event presents an exciting research opportunity,” the officials added.
“After the impact, the mission can use its cameras to locate the impact, and compare old photos with photos taken after the impact. The search for the impact crater will be difficult and could take weeks to months.”
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The crater will not be the first on the moon
If the rocket creates a crater on the moon’s surface from the impact, it will not be the only crater on the moon’s surface, CNN pointed out.
The Moon does not have a protective atmosphere, so craters occur naturally when objects such as asteroids collide with it on a regular basis.
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What time did the missile fall?
Experts claim that the accident occurred at 7.25 a.m. EDT on the far side of the moon, out of reach of ground-based observatories.
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Where did the missile fall?
The collision likely occurred on the far side of the moon on Friday.
The one-ton mass of space junk was previously traveling at about 2.6 kilometers per second.
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Rocket body company continued
Bill Gray, director of the Pluto Project, which provides both commercial and free astronomy software for amateur and professional astronomers, is one of the people who created the China Link. Space.com.
“There’s really no good reason at this point to believe the object is anything other than the Chang’e 5-T1 booster,” Gray told Inside Outer Space last month.
“Anyone who claims otherwise has a large mound of evidence to contend with.”
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What company does the missile body belong to?
The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) in 2015 was designated as the rocket body.
However, the object is now associated with the Chinese Long March 3C missile, which launched the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014, according to Space.com.
Chang’e 5-T1 flew off the Moon and returned to Earth to test the atmospheric re-entry capabilities of the Chang’e 5 lunar mission in 2020.
On behalf of Luxembourg-based company LuxSpace, Chang’e 5-T1 carried a secondary load of scientific equipment into the upper stage of the Long March rocket.
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Who predicted the collision, continue
“In 2015, (mis)identified this object as 2015-007B, the second stage of the DSCOVR spacecraft,” Gray wrote on February 12.
“We now have good evidence that it is in fact definitely65B, the Chang’e 5-T1 moon mission booster.”
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Who predicted the collision?
In January, space trackers calculated that a man-made piece of debris was on its way to the moon and was first spotted by Bill Gray, who wrote Project Pluto’s popular near-Earth object tracking software.
He stated that the junk was a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
She was on a mission to deploy an Earth observation satellite called DSCOVR for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
However, Gray later retracted his claim and said the missile part likely belonged to China, and China has since denied the accusation.
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How to send your name around the moon
You need to go to the official NASA website for the Artemis mission.
This is available here.
You need to enter your name and a custom PIN, which will generate your boarding pass.
The PIN should consist of 4 to 7 digits.
Remember your PIN, as this will allow you to access your boarding pass in the future.
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Will pictures be taken of the crash site?
Once the dust settles, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will move to its position to take pictures of everything that remains behind.
These images may be crucial to scientists hoping to gain a better understanding of space collision.
They can also help determine the missile’s origins once and for all by studying any man-made debris behind it.
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What if someone dies on a longer space flight?
More problems arise for longer missions.
experts Christopher Newman And the Nick Kaplan wrote in Conversation They believe that a body on a year-long journey to Mars should be frozen, possibly toward the outer surface of the spacecraft, in order to return it to Earth safely.
This can also reduce the weight of the body and save space in the vehicle.
Space researchers also suggest that as we colonize space, objects may have to be disposed of rather than preserved.
Burials may pollute planets, but tossing corpses into the abyss of space will lead to ethical problems and space debris issues.
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What would happen if someone died on a space flight?
If someone to He dies during a space tourism tripThis could result in the identified company getting into legal trouble and a duty of care investigation.
Legal concerns will be the least of the crew’s concerns although they will need to know what to do with the body.
If the space trip was short, the body would be easy to store and return to Earth.
According to space experts Christopher Newman And the Nick Kaplanthe body would need to be kept cool to prevent decomposition and stored in a place where other crew members would not be contaminated.
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Has anyone died in space?
About 30 astronauts and cosmonauts have Died while trying to do space missions.
Seven astronauts died when NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch in 1986.
Seven other astronauts died when NASA’s shuttle Columbia crashed when it returned to Earth in 2003.
These tragic events were shocking and killed all the crew on board.
No spaceflight has ever taught us what would happen if one crew member died during a mission while the others were alive and fit enough to continue.
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The first accidental crash
Without including the probes that crashed while attempting to land on the Moon, this was the first known unintended lunar collision involving a piece of space equipment.
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European Space Agency commented
The European Space Agency has commented on the upcoming collision between the booster rocket and the lunar surface.
“This still-developing discovery underscores the need for enhanced space tracking, and greater data sharing among spacecraft operators, launch providers, and the astronomy and space observation communities,” Agency Books.
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Did SpaceX respond?
The SpaceX Twitter account There has been no recent response to the accusations that the booster belongs to the company.
In fact, the missile part most likely belongs to China, not Elon Musk.
China has since denied the accusation.
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Has space junk ever hit the moon?
As part of the LCROSS mission, in 2009 NASA smashed a booster rocket into the Moon in hopes of learning something from the debris it left behind.
“In essence, this ‘free’ LCROSS…except we probably won’t see the effect,” Bill Gray, who wrote the popular Near-Earth object tracking software Project Pluto, wrote in January.