A piece of a SpaceX rocket is about to hit the moon
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster is set to collide with the moon near the Einstein crater. Scientists view this accidental impact as a unique opportunity to study lunar composition and calibrate impact-tracking techniques.
Why it matters
The event provides a rare, controlled-variable opportunity for planetary scientists to study lunar surface dynamics and improve impact modeling for future space missions.
A roughly five-ton piece of a SpaceX rocket that sent two lunar landers to the moon is about to join them, but not on purpose.
Early Wednesday morning, at around 2:34 a.m. ET, the upper stage of a discarded Falcon 9 rocket will collide with the moon at 5,400 miles per hour near the crater Einstein on the western lunar limb, according to Bill Gray, who runs Project Pluto and develops software for tracking astronomical objects.
Gray was the first to calculate that the object would hit the moon and has been tracking it since. He also co-authored a study on the impact with an international team of researchers who recently made their work available on the open-access preprint arXiv server. The paper has not been peer-reviewed.
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