Here is the video that shows exactly what happened

At 13:25:58 Italian time yesterday, part of a missile launched from China hit the moon While traveling almost at speed 9,288 km/h.

Space debris is a rocket booster stage The Long Walk 3C which launched the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 spacecraft from central Xichang on October 23, 2014. It has been in orbit in the Earth-Moon system ever since, albeit in a somewhat erratic fashion.

new Vitality Based on physics, created with the AGI system (Ansys Corporation), Shows exactly what happened When the body crashes on the surface of the moon near Hertzsprunga huge crater on the far side of the moon (video below).
The software used for video production, the Systems Toolkit (STK) and the Orbit Identification Toolkit (ODTK), is used by the aerospace and defense community to simulate complex missions.

The event took place far from the eyes of telescopes or spacecraft in orbit, so there was no possibility of “live” observation.
However, it is possible that either NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) or India’s Chandrayaan-2, both orbiting the Moon, will be able to image the new crater later to confirm the impact.

Here is a video simulating the approach and impact of the missile:

What is the thing?The space debris is the upper stage of a rocket launched from China in 2014. It was first discovered in March 2015 by telescopes in Arizona that form the backbone of the Catalina Sky Survey and has since been observed by Bill Grayan American astronomer and developer of Project Pluto asteroid tracking software.

Gray initially thought the debris came from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched in February 2015 to bring the Deep Space Climate Observatory into orbit, but recent evidence suggests that the space debris was in fact. The upper stage of a missile of the Chinese mission Chang’e 5-T1which was launched in October 2014 as part of a test mission to send a capsule to the Moon. However, officials from the Chinese Foreign Ministry have disputed this hypothesis.

Did the effect affect the moon?

Contrary to the scenario in the movie “Moonfall”The impact of the debris did not cause any significant damage to the Moon, other than creating a new crater on its already dug out surface. The moment the missile hits the satellite, The shock wave travels through the body within fractions of a secondAs a result, it shattered with an explosion of pieces of metal. A second shock wave also traveled to the dusty surface of the moonheating the rocks and dust enough to produce massive boulders Lightning As he produced a column of material that flew hundreds of kilometers high. All that was left of the missile was the crater it madewhich contains the file Estimated diameter from 10 to 20 meters.

Although this was the first involuntary lunar collision, it wasn’t the first time a satellite had smashed into the moon. In 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Crater Monitoring and Sensing satellite toward the moon’s south pole at 9,000 km/h, generating a jet of material that allowed scientists to detect key water ice signs. NASA also deliberately disposed of the Saturn 5 rockets used on the Apollo missions on the satellite.

What can we learn from the impact?

Scientists are happy to observe the new crater for two reasons.
First, given the speed and size of the object that will crash onto the moon’s surface, researchers hope that the size of the object’s crater will provide Factor Useful for other craters on the Moon, allowing an estimate of the size and velocity of asteroids that have impacted the satellite in the past.
Second, since scientists know so little about the composition of the lunar interior, they hope the impact will provide a better impact. absorb From this little studied area.