A new double crater formed on the surface of the moon after the body of an unknown rocket crashed into it on March 4.
This was reported by CNN.
As a result of the impact, two craters with diameters of 18 and 16 meters were formed at once. Together, they create a depression about 28 meters wide.
"Typically, spent rockets have the most mass at the motor end because the rest of the rocket is largely just an empty fuel tank. But the double crater suggests that this object had large masses at both ends when it hit the moon," NASA explained.
The exact origin of the rocket hull, which turned into space debris many years ago, is unclear, so a double crater could help astronomers determine what it was.
Independent researcher Bill Gray, developer of software for tracking orbits in space, was the first to notice the trajectory of an unknown object. He initially took it for the degree of SpaceX Falcon or DSCOVR rocket, launched in 2015, but later admitted that he was wrong.
Gray then speculated that it was the 2014 Chinese mission to Changzhen. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denies this claim, saying that the launch vehicle "safely entered the Earthʼs atmosphere and burned completely."