This image shows the crash site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage that hit the far side of the Moon on March 4, 2022.

 

This is what really happens when a rocket hits the Moon.

This image shows the crash site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage that hit the far side of the Moon on March 4, 2022. It was traveling about 5,700 mph (2.58 km/s) when it hit near a crater called Hertzsprung.

Because there is no air on the Moon, there is no big fireball or smoke like on Earth. The rocket instantly vaporizes and blasts out Moon dust and rock at super high speed.

It made a strange double crater — about 92 feet (28 meters) wide in total — because the heavy engine end and the lighter empty fuel tank hit a few feet apart.

The light streaks you see all around are the debris fallout. In the vacuum of space, dust and rocks fly in perfect arcs and land hundreds of feet away, creating a starburst pattern. That pattern is exactly what NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed when it flew over the site.

Space-Time