HIGHLIGHTS

The impact of a four-ton rocket component will not be visible from Earth.

The LRO might be employed in the future.

Previously, spacecraft have been deliberately crashed into the Moon.

WHY IN NEWS

NASA said on Thursday that it plans to study the crater that will be made when the remains of a SpaceX rocket fall into the Moon in early March, calling the event 'an interesting scientific opportunity.' The rocket was launched in 2015 to launch a NASA satellite into orbit, and its second stage, or booster, has been floating around in space ever since, which is a frequent destiny for space hardware. 'The second stage is anticipated to contact the far side of the Moon on March 4, 2022, on its present trajectory,' a NASA spokesman told TO NEWS. 

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The four-ton rocket chunk's impact will not be visible in real time from Earth, and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is now circling the Moon, will not be in a 'position to view the impact as it happens,' according to a spokesperson. The LRO, on the other hand, might be utilised afterwards to take photos for before-and-after comparisonns. The spokesperson stated that finding the crater 'would be difficult and might take weeks to months,' but that the 'unique event gives an interesting study opportunity.' 

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Studying a crater made by a hurtling object with a known mass and speed (it will be moving at 9,000 kilometres per hour), as well as the material stirred up by the impact, might aid develop selenology, or the scientific study of the moon. Although spacecraft have previously collided with the Moon for scientific objectives, such as during the Apollo missions to test seismometers, this is the first unintentional collision to be discovered. The booster's new crash trajectory with the Moon was calculated for the first time by astronomer Bill Gray, the developer of software used to compute the trajectories of asteroids and other objects.