The collision occurred at 12.25 GMT with the dark side of the moon, according to astronomer Bill Gray, who first revealed the expected collision weeks ago.
Gray said that the cylindrical object, which reached a speed of nine thousand kilometers per hour, “is expected to have caused a crater with a diameter of between ten and twenty meters.”
His path was calculated by observations made through telescopes from Earth.
“We had a lot of data regarding this object,” Gray said, adding: “The object hit the moon on Friday morning, unless it was pulled by an evil hand.”
The identification of the missile in question sparked controversy, in light of the fact that no party has officially assumed responsibility for identifying and tracking the remnants of space that float in the depths of the universe.
Gray, a creator of software used in NASA-funded observational programs, monitors these remnants to distinguish them from asteroids, thus avoiding fruitless research.
After initially believing that these remains were from a SpaceX missile, he eventually announced that they were leftovers from the Chinese “Long March” missile, which was launched in 2014 on a mission called “Changi 5-T1” as part of a Chinese program to explore the moon.
Beijing denied the matter, stressing that the missile layer “entered in a non-hazardous manner in the Earth’s atmosphere and was completely burned.” But Gray considers that China mistook two missions with similar names, and was in fact talking regarding a missile that was launched later.
The crater can only be monitored by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or the Indian “Chandrian 2” spacecraft, which are in orbit around the moon.
At the end of January, the US space agency confirmed its intention to locate the crater, but indicated that the process might take “weeks”.
Bill Ray believes that the two probes can monitor any region of the moon once a month.
It is not uncommon for rocket layers to be left in space following taking the results that were launched to achieve them, but this is the first time that an unintended collision with the moon has been observed. In the past, rocket layers landed on the moon to accomplish scientific missions such as the Apollo flights.
The study of the crater that formed on the surface of the moon can contribute to the development of the scientific study of the moon.
