[아하! 우주] Space junk rocket crashes on the far side of the moon on the 4th… Nationality is a mystery

▲ The point where the moon was expected to collide on the 4th (left) and the last remnant of the rocket captured by the Italian online observatory, The Virtual Telescope Project, on February 8.

It is known that about 3 tons of space debris collided on the far side of the moon around 9:25 PM Korean time on the 4th. Foreign media such as AFP reported on the same day that the rocket debris turned into space debris fell at a speed of 9300 km/h into the Hertzsprung crater on the far side of the moon, forming a crater (crater) with a diameter of 10 to 20 meters.

This space junk, known through several reports before, is part of a rocket launched into space in the past. After launch, its own fuel was exhausted, and it drifted according to the gravity of the Earth, the moon, and the sun, and then fell to the moon and met its end. As a result, it is the first time in history that a human creature collides with the moon, and the effect on the moon, which already has numerous craters, is minimal.

▲ The lunar impact point of the rocket debris

However, this space debris fell on the far side of the moon and could not be directly observed from Earth. In particular, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and India’s Chandrayaan 2 were also located in different places and could not capture the historical event. Because of this, so far, no one has been able to provide any ‘photo evidence’ except for the assumption that space debris collided with the moon. However, it is expected that the LRO will be able to detect traces of the collision when observing the collision point.

In particular, the ‘nationality’ of this space garbage, which was another concern, is expected to remain a mystery forever. Originally, American astronomer Dr. Bill Gray announced that the rocket was part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida in 2015. After sending NASA’s Deep Space Weather Observation Satellite (DSCOVR) to Lagrange Point, about 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, the rocket itself ran out of fuel and became space debris.

▲ China’s Changjeong-3C rocket launched in 2014 with a lunar probe. Photo = AP Yonhap News

However, Dr. Gray later re-analyzed the data and corrected that it was not a Falcon 9 rocket, but a booster for China’s Chang’e-5-T1 launched in 2014. In particular, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) claimed to have identified parts of the Chinese rocket in the light reflected from the paint while observing the space debris through the telescope. At this news, even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China was furious.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Wang Wenbin said, “The US claim that this space debris is from China is not true.”

By Park Jong-ik, staff reporter [email protected]