A Chinese rocket fell on the moon. It was transporting a mysterious cargo

Object WE0913A collided with the far side of the Moon March 4, 2022. It has left an unusually shaped double crater on the surface of the Silver Globe – one about 18 meters in diameter and the other about 16 meters.

According to previous analyses, the shape of the craters indicates this The missile body had “large blocks attached to both ends” And it hit the moon’s surface horizontally.

Initially, it was believed that the missile fragment belonged to… SpaceX and Falcon 9. However, subsequent analyzes indicate that these are the remains of the rocket used in the Chinese lunar mission Changyi 5-T1. Beijing denied these reports.

Scientists from the University of Arizona, the Planetary Science Institute and the Pluto Project have looked into the whole thing. To find out exactly what happened on the far side of the moon, exactly They plotted the path of movement of the objectUsing data from a ground-based telescope.

They confirmed that Object WE0913A is part of the Chinese Long March rocket from the Chang’e 5-T1 missionwhich was launched in 2014.

In addition, researchers believe they have found evidence to support this The missile could carry “an additional, undisclosed payload.”. The object did not move in a “chaotic manner” when it fell on the surface of the moon, but rather rotated in a “fairly orderly motion.” This indicates that the missile body was counterbalanced by another mass that would balance the two engines, whose total weight is approximately 1,100 kg.

As Tanner Campbell, first author of the study from the University of Arizona, says: “An object that has been in space for a long time has been exposed to The action of the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Moon And sunlight. So you can expect it to wobble a bit, especially considering that the rocket’s body is a large hollow rocket with heavy engines on one side. However, the object simply fell in a very stable manner.

He added: “We know that the missile fragment had a tooling surface attached to the upper end, but its weight was only about 27 kilograms.” We performed a torque balance analysis, which showed that this amount of weight would shift the rocket’s center of gravity by a few inches — not enough to ensure a stable rotation. Therefore, we believe that a larger mass must be placed at the front – added.

The next proof is to be Unusual double holeWhich was created when the rocket hit the moon’s surface. As Campbell said: – This is the first time we have seen such a double crater. We know that to have two holes of the same size, two roughly equal masses are needed.

– Of course, we have no idea what it could be – maybe some additional support structure, or additional tools or something else. Maybe we’ll never know Campbell concluded.