#moon

earthsky.org

SpaceX rocket hit the moon: Before and after pics

www.universetoday.com

SpaceX Junk Hits the Moon. Not a Good Sign

On Wednesday, August 5th, at 06:35 UTC (11:35 p.m. PDT; 2:35 a.m. EDT), a 13.8-meter (45-ft) long, 4,000 kg (9,000 lbs) spent upper stage once belonging to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the Moon. The upper stage (designated object ) is a leftover piece of the rocket that launched Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 and ispace's HAKUTO-R M2 “Resilience,”, two lunar landers that launched in January 2025. The spent stage struck the western "lunar limb," close to the Einstein Crater on the moon's dayside while traveling at roughly 8,700 km/h (5,400 mph). Before the impact, scientists estimated that the upper stage would create a crater measuring 20 to 27 meters (65 to 89 feet) in diameter and 4 meters (12 to 13 feet) in depth. While no images of the collision were captured, the plume created by the impact was observable to viewers with the right equipment. In addition, astronomers at the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile also provided spectroscopic data of the region, which noted the presence of lithium and sodium kicked up from the impact. This dust dissipated within minutes of the impact, and images of the impact crater were captured afterward by the Korean...