NASA has released images of a new crater on the moon after part of a rocket launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX crashed into its surface this month.
The upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket slammed into the moon on Aug. 5 around 5,400 mph, after spending more than a year in space.
NASA on Tuesday released before-and-after images of the impact site, which were captured by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Scientists determined the crater to be 60 feet across and less than 10 feet deep.
The images show bright and dark streaks emanating from the crater. The darker rays are made of dust and rocks altered over time by solar wind, cosmic rays and micrometeorite impacts, NASA said. The brighter streaks are made of material excavated from deeper underground.
NASA said the orbiter took the images six days after the crash, from about 60 miles above the moon.
The crash was not intentional, but Kelsey Young, a NASA lunar scientist, said the agency was not concerned.
“This is actually a technically accepted and safe method of disposing of hardware in low lunar orbit,” she said in a social media post.
“In some cases, mission operators actually choose to end their mission by impacting their hardware on the lunar surface because it’s a predictable and trackable strategy,” Young said.
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