It’s possible that an out-of-control rocket the size of a school bus has hit the moon by now.
According to astronomers, the booster rocket was Set to reach the surface of the moon at about 7.25 a.m. ET (12:25 GMT) after spending nearly eight years stumbling across space.
This would likely be the first time a man-made object has hit another space object without being directed there, but we won’t know it hit the moon for sure until two lunar-orbiting satellites pass over the potential impact site and photograph any crater. that resulted from the collision, the BBC mentioned.
The Rocket segment was first spotted by Bill Gray, who writes Popular Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
He stated that the scrap was a SpaceX The Falcon 9 upper stage was launched from Florida by Team Elon Musk in February 2015.
However, Bell later retracted his claim and said that the missile part most likely belonged to him China. China has since denied the accusation.
Read the Moon Rocket Crash Live Blog for the latest news and updates…
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Follow the origin of the missile body
for every CNNthere are no institutions that track space trash in a systematic way.
The mystery surrounding the origin of the rocket’s stage has highlighted the need for official agencies to closely monitor deep space waste rather than relying on the limited resources of individuals and academics.
Experts believe the biggest problem is space debris in low Earth orbit, where it could collide with working satellites, generate additional junk, and endanger human life aboard manned spacecraft, according to CNN.
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The origin of the missile body
The source of the missile part is unknown, according to CNN.
Bill Gray, Pluto’s project manager, originally mistook it for the stage of the SpaceX Falcon rocket that launched the US Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, in 2015.
He later admitted he was wrong and was most likely from a 2014 Chinese lunar mission, which was approved by NASA.
On the other hand, the Chinese Foreign Ministry doubted that the missile was from the Chang’e-5 moon mission, claiming that the missile had burnt up upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
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Rocket body company continued
Bill Gray, director of the Pluto Project, which provides both commercial and free astronomy software for amateur and professional astronomers, is one of the people who created the China Link. Space.com.
“There is no good reason at this point to believe that the object is anything other than the Chang’e 5-T1 booster,” Gray told Inside Outer Space last month.
“Anyone who claims otherwise has a large mound of evidence to contend with.”
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What company does the missile body belong to?
The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) in 2015 was designated as the rocket body.
However, the object is now linked to the Chinese Long March 3C missile, which launched the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014, according to Space.com.
Chang’e 5-T1 flew off the Moon and returned to Earth to test the atmospheric re-entry capabilities of the Chang’e 5 lunar mission in 2020.
On behalf of Luxembourg-based LuxSpace, the Chang’e 5-T1 carried a secondary load of scientific equipment into the upper stage of the Long March rocket.
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SpaceX Achievements
SpaceX’s achievements include:
- The first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach Earth’s orbit
- The first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft
- The first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station
- The first vertical take-off and vertical thrust landing of an orbiting rocket
- The first reuse of an orbital missile
- The first private company to send astronauts into orbit and to the International Space Station
- The Falcon 9 series of rockets has been launched more than a hundred times by SpaceX
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When was SpaceX founded?
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., widely known as SpaceX, is a Hawthorne, California-based aerospace manufacturer, space transportation service provider, and communications company.
Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of lowering space transportation costs so that Mars could be colonized.
The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, as well as various rocket engines, the Cargo Dragon, the space crew vehicle, and the Starlink communications satellites, are manufactured by SpaceX.
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Who is Elon Musk?
Born June 28, 1971, Elon Musk He is a business magnate and entrepreneur.
He is the co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, as well as the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX.
Musk is also an early stage investor, CEO, and product engineer at Tesla, Inc. and founder of The Boring Company.
He is the richest individual in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, with Estimated net worth About $224 billion as of February 2022.
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How far is the moon?
The average distance between Earth and the Moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km), according to NASA.
This means that it is about 30 km from Earth.
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Biological contamination is possible
There is the potential for biocontamination at the crash site, according to David Rothrie, professor of planetary geology at the Open University in the UK.
This is because missile parts are not sterile when launched.
“Most of the microbes will die, but maybe not all of them. They may not reproduce, but it’s a very small risk,” he said. CNN.
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The crater will not be the first on the moon
If the rocket creates a crater on the moon’s surface from the impact, it will not be the only crater on the moon’s surface, CNN pointed out.
The Moon does not have a protective atmosphere, so craters occur naturally when objects such as asteroids collide with it on a regular basis.
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The collision wouldn’t be ‘noticeable’
“If it were observable – which unfortunately it won’t – you would see big flashes, dust, bits of decaying rockets, pebbles and boulders thrown in, some for hundreds of kilometres,” said Bill Gray. CNN Missile booster and its imminent collision with the moon.
Gray was the first to discover the trajectory of the missile and wrote the folklore Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
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How to send your name around the moon
You need to go to the official NASA website for Artemis mission.
This is available here.
You need to enter your name and a custom PIN, which will generate your boarding pass.
The PIN should consist of 4 to 7 digits.
Remember your PIN, as this will allow you to access your boarding pass in the future.
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Exact collision time
The rocket likely hit the moon at 12:25:58 UTC on March 4, 2022, Forbes mentioned.
The four-ton rocket portion likely hit the lunar surface at about 5,700 miles per hour.
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European Space Agency comments
The European Space Agency has commented on the possible collision between the booster rocket and the lunar surface before it could happen.
“This still-developing discovery underscores the need for enhanced space tracking, and greater data sharing among spacecraft operators, launch providers, and the astronomy and space observation communities,” Agency Books.
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Has space junk ever hit the moon?
As part of the LCROSS mission, in 2009 NASA smashed a booster rocket into the Moon in hopes of learning something from the debris it left behind.
“In essence, this LCROSS is ‘free’…except that we probably won’t see the effect,” Bill Gray, who wrote Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects, he wrote in January.
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The effect will not be visible
Missile part checked hit the moon On March 4, it will leave a crater about 65 feet in diameter on the surface but unfortunately, the impact will not be able to be seen live as the degraded rocket part is expected to hit the far side of the Moon – the part that faces away from Earth.
Instead, astronomers will rely on images taken by satellites including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what happens after the collision.
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Who predicted the collision, continue
“In 2015, (mis)identified this object as 2015-007B, the second stage of the DSCOVR spacecraft,” Gray wrote on February 12.
“We now have good evidence that it is in fact definitely65B, the Chang’e 5-T1 moon mission booster.”
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Who predicted the collision?
In January, space trackers calculated that a piece of man-made debris was on its way hit the moon It was first spotted by Bill Gray, who writes Popular Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
He stated that the junk was a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
She was on a mission to deploy an Earth observation satellite called DSCOVR for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
However, Gray later retracted his claim and said the missile part likely belonged to China, and China has since denied the accusation.
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intrinsic uncertainty
Professor Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said: BBC News He agrees with Gray’s reassessment that the missile part most likely belongs to China instead.
He said there is a lot of “fundamental uncertainty” in identifying space debris and errors in identification can occur.
“We rely on a small handful of volunteers who do this on their own time,” he told the BBC.
“So there is limited scope for cross-checking.”
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Impact on the moon
The collision of the rocket and the moon is expected to produce a cloud of debris and leave a small crater behind.
However, no serious damage is expected.
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What is a booster missile?
The object may have been part of a rocket that launched a small Chinese spacecraft, called Chang’e 5-T1, toward the moon in 2014.
Bill Gray, who writes the popular Near-Earth Object tracking program Project Pluto, originally reported that the remnants were a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage launched from Florida in February 2015.
However, Bell later retracted his claim and said the missile part likely belonged to China instead.
China has since denied the accusation.
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Where did the missile fall?
The A collision is possible On the other side of the moon.
The one-ton mass of space junk was previously traveling at about 2.6 kilometers per second.
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The vehicle may hit near the crater of the volcano
The missile may have specifically crashed near a crater called Hertzsprung, according to Forbes.
It’s on the far side of the Moon, so no impact will be visible from Earth.
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Moon Crash Confusion
People on social media were confused on Friday about the rocket part, and whether or not it actually crashed on the moon.
“Does anyone know if the #moon accident happened?” One person wrote.
“Isn’t something hitting the moon today?? 🌝🤔” someone else chirp.
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Gray defends ‘simple steps’
What confusion about Missile part stray Explains that there must be better tracking of junk in deep space, Bill Gray, who writes Project Pluto برنامج To track near-Earth objects.
“Many spacecraft are now in high orbits, and some will take crews to the moon,” Gray said.
“This junk will not only be a nuisance to a small group of astronomers.”
“A few fairly simple steps can help a lot.”
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