Welp, Nobody Saw SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Crash Into the Moon
The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made a crash landing on the moon on Wednesday. But while astronomers hoped to be able to catch a glimpse of the moment of impact, no one seems to have captured images or video.
The timing of the crash landing was well documented, giving astronomers plenty of time to train their telescopes and instruments on the moon in hopes of catching a lunar first: an impact flash on the lit side of the moon.
When the time came, though, no observatory managed to obtain a direct image of the collision of the rocket, which was traveling at about 5,400 mph at the time of impact. The strongest evidence of the impact so far comes from an observation made in Chile. According to the Associated Press, scientists using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope detected a stream of sodium...
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