A routine disposal maneuver has left a fresh mark on the Moon, giving scientists an unexpected opportunity to study impact behavior and lunar soil.<\/p>\n
A new crater approximately 18 meters wide has been discovered on the Moon\u2019s surface. It appeared after the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket collided with Earth\u2019s satellite on August 5.<\/p>\n
The stage was part of a rocket launched on January 15, 2025. At the time, the Falcon 9 sent two commercial robotic lunar landers onto their trajectory toward the Moon. The first stage returned to Earth after launch, while the second continued into space.<\/p>\n
After completing the main part of the mission, SpaceX separated the upper stage. Its subsequent motion under the influence of orbital dynamics eventually placed it on a collision course with the Moon.<\/p>\n
How NASA studied the Falcon 9 impact site<\/p>\n
NASA conducted the study together with the Korea AeroSpace Administration, using earlier data from the Danuri lunar orbiter. To examine the new crater, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the impact area several times.<\/p>\n
During the observations, the spacecraft was about 96 kilometers above the lunar surface and traveling at roughly 1.6 kilometers per second. Specialists needed six days to adjust its orbit so that it would pass over the required area.<\/p>\n
NASA noted that the Falcon 9 stage\u2019s impact posed no threat to Earth and did not create a hazard for the lunar surface.<\/p>\n
\nThis is not something that truly concerns us. In fact, it is a technically acceptable and safe way to dispose of hardware in low lunar orbit. Things hit the Moon all the time: meteors, asteroids, comets.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kelsey Young<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Why the new lunar crater will be studied<\/p>\n
Scientists plan to use data from the impact to study the properties of lunar soil. Such observations may help improve our understanding of the effects of space objects striking the Moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
The findings will also be considered when developing safety measures for future astronauts and lunar infrastructure. The new crater has become another example of how human-made objects can contribute to scientific research into natural processes on the Moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A routine disposal maneuver has left a fresh mark on the Moon, giving scientists an unexpected opportunity to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,19,17,60948,157918,58164,272665,1024,5,133,451,20066,272664],"class_list":["post-644409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lunar-impact","tag-lunar-reconnaissance-orbiter","tag-lunar-soil","tag-moon-crater","tag-nasa","tag-news","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex-falcon-9","tag-spacex-falcon-9-moon-crater-lunar-impact-nasa-lunar-reconnaissance-orbiter-lunar-soil"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117119040121003440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}