A leftover piece of a SpaceX rocket has crashed into the Moon, giving scientists a rare chance to study what happens when something hits the lunar surface, the BBC reports.
The empty part of Falcon 9 rocket hit near Einstein Crater on the side of the Moon that faces the Earth.
It smashed into the lunar surface at around 5,400 miles per hour – seven times the speed of sound.
American space agency, Nasa said there is no risk from the crash on Earth and that they will “observe the impact site for scientific purposes”.
None of the spacecraft already orbiting the Moon were positioned to capture the crash live, so the first job for scientists now is to compare before-and-after pictures of the surface to spot a new impact crater.
The object is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured for, what the company calls “the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond”.
Rockets are often built in sections, called stages. The first stage gives the rocket its first big push away from Earth. The upper stage then helps send spacecraft farther into space.
This upper stage launched in January 2025, carrying two robotic Moon landers.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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