A mysterious crash on the moon’s surface last year left scientists wondering what created a pair of craters. A new analysis from the University of Arizona found that the crash involved remnants of a Chinese rocket booster.
The Chinese rocket was hauling an unknown payload that created a second crater when it crashed into the moon.
American scientists say it was a booster that came off a Chinese rocket that went tumbling slowly toward the moon. They found the booster created one crater, and a second crater was formed by a mysterious object attached to the booster.
China is challenging the findings of the U.S. research team and refutes the claim that Chinese spacecraft caused the craters.
The scientists acknowledge that they may never determine the identity of the second device because China’s National Space Administration denies that the object was of Chinese origin.
The American research team contends it has “definitive proof” the space junk that hit the moon was a Chinese booster from a rocket China sent into orbit in 2014.
China claims the rocket booster “burned up upon re-entry to Earth,” but the U.S. Space Command says that is false. Now speculation is centered on what the attached object was that created the second crater.
“Something that’s been in space as long as this is subjected to forces from the Earth’s and the Moon’s gravity and the light from the sun,” the lead author of the study said. “Its impact was almost straight down, and to get those two craters of about the same size, you need two roughly equal masses that are apart from each other.”
According to the author, the rocket body is a big empty shell on one end and a heavy engine on the other, meaning a second object had to have been on the other end of equal weight.
The study warns that as space exploration grows, countries need to be mindful of space debris and consider where it goes and the impact of its landing.
