A new crater in Moon is catching the attention of scientists, leading them to suspect that it was caused by the collision of the Russian Luna 25 mission with the lunar surface.
Images of this crater were recently released by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, revealing intriguing details. See below!
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The Russian aircraft
Luna 25, a Russian unmanned spacecraft, was launched on August 10 with the mission to land near the lunar south pole. The object is the first lunar module in Russia in 47 years.
However, the mission ran into difficulties when communication with the probe was interrupted on August 19 during an attempt to enter a pre-landing lunar orbit. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, attributed the incident to an engine failure.
On August 21, Roscosmos shared an estimate of Luna 25's impact point, which allowed the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team to direct their observations to the location.
The following day, images were captured revealing the new crater, which was compared to photos taken at the same location in June 2022, before the accident.
The crater
(Photo: NASA/disclosure)
The new crater is about 10 meters in diameter and located approximately 400 kilometers from Luna 25's original landing target.
The crater's proximity to the estimated point of impact led scientists to conclude that it was very likely caused by the crash of the Russian spacecraft.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in lunar orbit since 2009, has played an important role in detection and documentation of impact craters caused by previous missions that collided with the lunar surface. One example was India's Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019.
This recent discovery shows us that, as space exploration grows, the Moon continues to be a fascinating field of study, capable of harboring surprises for the scientific community.
