The case of the mysterious moon crash is now conclusively closed, a new study reports.
On March 4, 2022, a rocket body slammed into the moon's far side, blasting out a weird double crater about 95 feet (29 meters) wide. The crash did not come as a surprise; astronomers had been tracking the rogue rocket for weeks and predicted, with impressive accuracy, where and when it would slam into the lunar surface.
The mystery involved the identity of the impactor, which astronomers designated WE0913A. Initial observations suggested it might be the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Earth-observing DSCOVR satellite in February 2015. But, after further work, astronomers soon settled on a different candidate: The third and uppermost stage of the Long March 3C rocket that lofted China's uncrewed Chang'e 5-T1 mission around the moon in October 2014.
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