Space debris was expected to collide with the Moon on Friday.
Launched at a speed of 8,851 kilometers per hour, it was to crash into Earth's natural satellite around 1:25 p.m., says the European Space Agency (ESA).
This is the first time that a space object resulting from human activities will crash on the Moon, accidentally, without it having been decided by scientists, reports
Ouest-France
.
Astronomers have wondered where the debris came from.
They first thought it might be parts from a SpaceX rocket but it's probably the end of a Chinese rocket.
What Beijing denies.
The shock promised to be powerful.
The debris, which is a kind of cylinder 12 meters long and 3 meters in diameter for about 3 tons, had to touch the Moon on its far side, specifies
Futura
.
A collision therefore impossible to observe.
But Bill Gray, who has developed software whose function is to calculate the trajectories of objects crossing space describes the phenomenon: projected rocks, sometimes over hundreds of kilometres.
»
A crater 10 to 20 meters in diameter
Photos will be able to account for the impact thanks to the orbital reconnaissance system of the Moon belonging to NASA but the event was not captured live.
The cameras will make it possible to compare the images of the surface of the natural satellite before the impact and after it.
But the search for the crater, which could be between 10 and 20 meters in diameter "will be difficult and could take weeks or even months", points out NASA.
In any case, this impact not decided by man will be used by scientists to study the Moon.
Many spacecraft have already crashed into the Moon.
The phenomenon could grow as debris accumulates around the Earth.
NASA has cataloged 27,000 objects in orbit, when the ESA (the European space agency) lists 36,500 over 10 cm.
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