Two weeks ago, the Russian lander “Luna-25” crashed while landing on the moon. Now the US space agency NASA has discovered the crash site when evaluating images sent to Earth by the “Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter” (LRO).
The crash of ‘Luna-25’ created a crater that was discovered with the orbiter LRO, NASA reported on its website on Thursday. A new crater is said to be clearly visible in images sent to Earth by LRO.
“Because this new crater is close to the estimated impact point of ‘Luna-25,’ the LRO team concludes it is more likely to have originated from this mission than from a natural impact point,” said a NASA official.
Crashed 400 meters from landing site
The new crater is about 10 meters wide and is located at about 58 degrees south latitude, on the steep inner rim of a lunar crater called Pontécoulant G, the US space agency said. The impact point of ‘Luna-25’ is about 400 kilometers from the planned landing site of the Russian probe, it is said.
The goal of “Luna-25” was to be the first lander to land gently near the south pole of Earth’s satellite. A region that, according to researchers, is rich in water ice.
The NASA probe has been orbiting the moon since 2009
The LRO was launched on June 18, 2009 along with the “Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite” (LCROSS) aboard an “Atlas” rocket to map the surface of the moon and detect possible water resources there.
Source: Krone
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