Shocking images have revealed the damage left behind when Elon Musk‘s discarded SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon.
On Wednesday, an out–of–control SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage careened into the lunar surface at 5,400 miles per hour (8,690km/h).
Scientists believe that the 4,500kg and 39ft–long (12m) rocket would have hit with a force equivalent to 15,000 sticks of dynamite, or three tonnes of TNT.
Now, a Korean lunar satellite has captured the first images of the new crater that the blast left behind.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s (KARI) Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site at 7.34am BST, shortly after the SpaceX rocket collided.
The orbiter also managed to grab images 30 minutes before the impact, revealing a striking before and after.
In these incredible images, a new crater on the lunar surface is clearly visible, which scientists estimated could be up to 27m across and five metres deep.
The area around the crash site is also noticeably darker after the rocket carved out the landscape, raining down dust and rocks on the surrounding terrain.
A Korean lunar satellite has captured the first images of the new crater left behind by Elon Musk’s abandoned SpaceX rocket that crashed into the moon
In a post on X, KARI said: ‘Danuri began observations about 30 minutes before the collision and, through orbit control, passed over the impact site multiple times, conducting a total of 8 imaging sessions.
‘Through this observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of ejecta spread were confirmed.’
KARI says that its observations will soon be backed up by photos from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Although this orbiting observer wasn’t in the right position to catch the crash live, it’s expected to take some very clear photos of the crater next week.
Meanwhile, a group of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain claim they have recorded the only footage of the impact actually taking place.
The Falcon 9 booster hit just behind the moon’s limb, meaning that the actual flash of impact was hidden.
However, astronomers think they managed to catch the rising plume of dust and debris that the force of the impact kicked out into space.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, in January last year.
Scientists believe that the 4,500kg and 39ft–long (12m) rocket would have hit with a force equivalent to 15,000 sticks of dynamite, or three tonnes of TNT
It was carrying two private lunar landers, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Resilience, into lunar orbit and was not intended to crash into the moon.
The Falcon 9’s primary booster is designed to be reusable, safely returning to Earth after pushing the upper stages out into space.
However, the later sections are simply jettisoned and left to drift through space, where they often burn up in Earth’s atmosphere after several years.
While it was never intended to hit the moon, a combination of lunar gravity and unexpected solar weather eventually pushed this particular secondary stage into a collision course with our lunar satellite.
This was initially spotted by independent astronomers, who noticed the rocket’s dangerous trajectory, before being confirmed by NASA’s Centre for Near–Earth Object Studies.
Scientists around the world have been extremely excited by the impact because it offers a rare chance to watch a lunar impact under relatively controlled conditions.
The moon is hit by thousands of meteorites every single year, but most of these are too small to pick up with telescopes or don’t have a known size and mass.
However, scientists know exactly what a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage weighs and is made of.
The orbiter passed overhead 30 minutes before the impact and multiple times afterwards, revealing the shocking before (left) and after (right)
This essentially turns the impact into a giant laboratory experiment, which is perfect for learning more about how impacts have shaped the moon’s history.
In 2006, the European Space Agency deliberately crashed the SMART–1 satellite into the lunar surface at 4,470 miles per hour (7,200km/h) so they could watch the impact.
The last time a rocket accidentally crashed into the moon was in 2022, when pieces of a Chinese spacecraft left two craters on the far side.
These impacts don’t pose a threat to any human life, and the debris they kick up won’t affect the Earth.
However, scientists are beginning to become concerned about the growing mounds of human junk gathering in space.
There are now roughly 3,000 human–made objects on the moon, with a combined weight of approximately 190 tonnes, and researchers expect many more to rain down in the future.
While these impacts only directly affect a small region of the moon’s surface, their after–effects could become disastrous.
Dr Mark Burchell, an astronomer from the University of Kent, told the Daily Mail: ‘The impact does not just make a crater, it creates ejecta, a sort of debris that moves away from the impact site at speed,’ Dr Burchell explains.
Researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain recorded what they believe to be the dust plume kicked up by the impact
‘That debris will rain down over a much larger region, 10s to 100s of kilometres away.
‘Each piece of debris may be small, but could puncture the skin of a pressurised vessel – bad news for the astronauts inside – or penetrate into a robotic spacecraft and damage its circuits.’
Right now, the risk is very low, so scientists are free to use the moon as a test site for impacts, but that could soon change.
Dr Matthew Bothwell, an astronomer from the University of Cambridge, told the Daily Mail: ‘There are thousands of things orbiting around Earth these days, and a crash with any one of them could scupper a mission.
‘Right now the risk is pretty small, but there are plans for some serious Lunar infrastructure in the coming decades, with NASA, China, and various private companies planning landers and even permanent Moon bases.
‘So while it’s not a problem today, it’s the kind of thing we should be thinking about so it doesn’t become a problem in future years.’
WHO HAS BEEN TO THE MOON?
In total 12 people have walked on the moon.
1 + 2. Apollo 11 – July 21, 1969
Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to set foot on the lunar surface, before he he was followed by crewmate Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin.
3 + 4. Apollo 12 – November 19 and 20, 1969
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the moon walkers on the Apollo 12 mission.
The Apollo 12 crew experienced two lightning strikes just after their Saturn V rocket launched.
5 + 6. Apollo 14 – February 5, 1971
Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were part of the Apollo 14 mission. They launched on January 31, 1971, and landed in the Fra Mauro region of the moon, the original destination for Apollo 13.
7 + 8. Apollo 15 – July 31, 1971
Dave Scott and James Irwin landed on the moon and stayed for three days, until August 2.
9 + 10. Apollo 16 – April 21, 1972
John Young and Charlie Duke were the next men to walk on the moon. When the crew reached lunar orbit, the mission almost had to be aborted because of a problem with the command and service module’s main engine.
11 + 12. Apollo 17 – December 11, 1972
The final people to walk on the moon were Eugene (Gene) Cernan and Harrison (Jack) Schmitt.
Before he left the moon, Cernan scratched the initials of his daughter Tracy into the lunar regolith. Since the moon does not experience weather conditions like wind or rain to erode anything away, her initials should stay there for a very long time.
All the men who have been to the moon
