Why Didn’t We Observe the Rocket that Hit the Moon?

It was reported that a rocket, which has been wandering in space for seven years and whose country is unknown, will crash into the Moon, and it was stated that the collision, which will take place completely uncontrolled, will be a first in the history of humanity. The expected collision between a stray 3-ton giant rocket and our planet’s only natural satellite finally took place on March 4th.

The collision on the far side of the Moon could not be observed because this region was out of sight of ground-based telescopes. But NASA has promised to investigate the crater that most likely formed on the moon’s surface as a result of the collision, even if it would take weeks or even months.

It is estimated that a crater about 20 meters wide formed on the surface of the Moon as a result of the rocket’s impact

US Space Agency NASA said that it wanted to investigate the crater after the collision; however, he noted that finding the crater could be quite difficult as the collision took place on the dark side of the moon.

In the calculations made on the dimensions of the crater, which will be formed based on the size and speed of the rocket, it was noted that the size of the crater could be between 10 and 20 meters wide. The collision, however, is estimated to have occurred near the 570-kilometer-wide Hertzsprung Crater, which formed naturally on the Moon’s surface.

So why were the impact and crater not observed?

After the collision, we all eagerly awaited photos and videos; however, it was not expected and we were unable to obtain any images of what happened on the Moon after this collision. Scientists gave the reason for this both before and after the collision.

As the rocket crashed into a region of the Moon that is out of sight of earth-based telescopes, the moment of the collision could not be observed, and the crater that is estimated to have formed in the region at the moment cannot be observed. But according to Gray, the crater will be visible to NASA’s Lunar Explorator and India’s Chandrayaan-2, which observe any part of the Moon once a month.

The rocket’s ownership remains a mystery. came from astronomer Bill Gray, who led the Project Pluto program, which tracks distant objects in deep space; The rocket, which Gray initially claimed to belong to SpaceX, was later claimed to belong to China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission.

China, on the other hand, denied the claim that the rocket belonged to them, claiming that the Chang’e 5-T1 returned to the Earth’s atmosphere in 2015. However, in the statements made by the United States Space Force officials on the subject, Chang’e 5-T1 did not return to the atmosphere as said; It was stated that this discourse of China was a ‘prediction’ rather than a documented data. Although no one has claimed the rocket yet, it can be said that all these developments support that the rocket belongs to China.