What Happened
Unintentional Impact Expected to Create New Crater
A drifting SpaceX rocket is expected to crash into the moon on Wednesday, creating a new crater and sending up a plume of dust and rubble. The rocket’s upper stage, which launched a pair of lunar landers over a year ago, will unintentionally slam into the moon’s sunlit western limb. Scientists are eager to observe the event, which will be the second dead rocket known to crash into the moon accidentally. The impact is expected to be visible to telescopes for tens of minutes, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter will gather before-and-after shots of the crash scene, as reported by Ynetnews.