The moon is about to get walloped by a big piece of space junk
FILE - Impact craters cover the surface of the moon, seen from Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semitractor-trailers. A leftover rocket is expected to smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800 mph on Friday, March 4, 2022, away from telescopes’ prying eyes. It may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
No matter whose it is, scientists expect the object to carve out a hole 33 feet to 66 feet across and send moon dust flying hundreds of miles across the barren, pockmarked surface. Gray said it was likely the third stage of a Chinese rocket that sent a test sample capsule to the moon and back in 2014. But Chinese ministry officials said the upper stage had reentered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up.
“I’ve become a little bit more cautious of such matters,” he said. “But I really just don’t see any way it could be anything else.” China has a lunar lander on the moon's far side, but it will be too far away to detect Friday's impact just north of the equator. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will also be out of range. It’s unlikely India’s moon-orbiting Chandrayaan-2 will be passing by then, either.
JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies endorses Gray’s reassessment. A University of Arizona team also recently identified the Chinese Long March rocket segment from the light reflected off its paint, during telescope observations of the careening cylinder.Gray said SpaceX never contacted him to challenge his original claim. Neither have the Chinese.
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Soviet-era space shuttle carrier aircraft destroyed in Russian attack on UkraineRobert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of 'Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.
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