An old rocket booster smashed into the Moon. The junk was part of a rocket that launched Chang’e 5-T1, a small Chinese spacecraft that orbited the Moon in 2014.
Thanks to lunar gravity, the booster collided with the far side of the Moon. It produced a puff of debris and left a small crater. Other junk is slated to reach the Moon this year.
Because of this, people are now concerned that the lunar surface might become a celestial dumping ground. “Public opinion has changed sufficiently in recent years that even a scientific lunar orbiter being deliberately crashed would still raise questions about impacts on the lunar environment, in a way it once wouldn’t have,” said space archaeologist Alice Gorman.
Image credit: NASA
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