A spaceship POT orbiting the Moon is providing the sharpest images to date of the crater formed by the impact of a rocket. SpaceX.
The space agency published “before” and “after” photos of the impact zone on Tuesday.
The upper stage of the Falcon rocket crashed into the Moon at 5,400 miles per hour on August 5, after having wandered in space for more than a year. In 2025 it launched a pair of private lunar landers with experiments and even a small rover, as part of NASA’s initiative to commercialize lunar exploration.
According to these new photos taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the newly formed crater appears to have 60 feet diameter and less than 10 feet deepaccording to scientists.
Dark and light stripes that extend from the crater like butterfly wings can be clearly seen. The darker lines represent excavated material that was near the surface and has been shaped by eons of solar wind, cosmic rays and micrometeorite impacts. Lighter streaks indicate recent rocks and soil that were ejected from greater depths.
The spacecraft photographed the crater a week after the collision from an altitude of 60 miles, while traveling at a speed of one mile per second. Flight controllers had to tilt the craft so their cameras were pointed toward the impact site.
The orbiter completes a lunar polar orbit every two hours, as the Moon rotates below. It took six days for the accident site to become visible.
The South Korean spacecraft “Danuri” was the first to arrive at the site and send images.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting the Moon since 2009, acting as NASA’s “eyes” to observe up close as the space agency works to return astronauts to the lunar surface.