In a first, a mysterious rocket part is about to slam into the moon — by accident

The far side of the moon is shown in the image. A piece of space junk is about to crash into the far side.

NASA

A rocket part that has been hurtling through space is about to hit the moon. The metal is going to make a mark on our lunar neighbor on Friday at . It is believed to be the first time a space missile has accidentally hit the moon.

While experts say there is no threat to us here on Earth, it does highlight a growing problem around our planet.

Observers say the rocket part is likely a piece of a Chinese spaceship that was launched in 2014. It is on a path to become a lunar crater.

If you were on the moon, it would look like a meteorite or a small asteroid, says Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist at the Florida Space Institute.

The moon is protected by a thick atmosphere like Earth. NASA deliberately crashed its LCROSS mission in 2009, which was on the hunt for lunar ice, in order to make it look like it had crashed. The moon is frequently hit by asteroids.

There is not a single spot of the moon that has not been churned over many times in the past.

Astronomers will not be able to see this impact happen in real time. Outside the scope of Earth-based telescopes, there is a collision on the far side of the moon. It could take weeks or months to confirm the impact.

Scientists hope to learn more about the crater created by the collision of the junk and the amount of heat it generated.

A problem closer to home

Space junk is not a big problem for the moon at the moment, but it is a problem closer to home. The chief scientist at Privateer is an engineer at the University of Texas Austin. About 5,000 pieces of debris are being tracked by his company.

"Anything else is garbage, so 90 percent of what we track is junk."

We rely on the satellites in space for navigation and communication. Tracking space junk is important to keeping those satellites working and preventing collisions which could turn parts of the infrastructure into even more space junk.

The speed at which objects in space travel is fifteen times the speed of a bullet.

Nothing is being done to protect the satellites from being swept by a piece of junk.

Tracking dead satellites is a challenge. Astronomers here on Earth look for clues in the light reflected off of their surfaces because they no longer transmit radio signals that could identify what they are or where they came from.

The materials that you build something out of have this wavelength dependency. Astronomers can use the uniquefingerprint that different materials give to light to identify what object is made of and who made it.

Initially, there was confusion as to what piece of junk was about to hit the moon. An initial analysis suggested the debris was from a rocket, but later it was determined it was from the Chinese space agency. Both parties denied ownership.

Tracking space trash

The chances of a collision in space are low, but the more stuff we put in space, the higher the risk. On November 15, 2021, the Russian military blew up a satellite in space with a missile, causing thousands of pieces of debris to threaten the International Space Station. The U.S. government disapproves of the move.

The private sector and the government are both interested in keeping space clean.

Laura Forczyk, a space policy analyst, says that we have polluted the skies just like we polluted the surface of Earth.

The National Space Council, a group dedicated to steering the Biden administration's space policy, directed the White House to beef up its efforts to control space debris. Enhancement of the security and resilience of space systems that provide or support U.S. critical infrastructure from malicious activities is one of the priorities outlined in the document.

Private companies are trying to find the debris. Some people are looking at ways to service satellites in space, so they don't become junk.

The focus on junk from the government and private section is a step in the right direction.

We need more attention brought to it. We need to make sure we don't create future debris.

There are a number of reasons to keep space junk under control, including the fact that NASA is planning a number of human missions in the 2020s, along with science missions on the lunar surface.