Discovery News > Space News > Is This the Lunar Crash Site of a 1967 Spacecraft?

Is This the Lunar Crash Site of a 1967 Spacecraft?

A strange-looking impact crater has been spotted by NASA's current lunar satellite.

Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:55 PM ET
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Lunar Orbiter 2's mission was to map out potential landing sites for the Apollo landings.
The spacecraft is known for its "picture of the century" photo of the moon's landscape.
A strange-looking impact crater has been spotted by NASA's current lunar satellite, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The odd-looking impact feature photographed on the far side of the moon by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Click to enlarge this image.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Scientists may have just found a lost 1967 spacecraft that took "the picture of the century" before crashing on the moon.

The Lunar Orbiter 2 was sent to the moon to map out possible landing sites for the Apollo missions, and although its efforts weren't the most successful, the spacecraft made its mark in history for taking a photograph of the lunar surface widely considered the "picture of the century."

NASA intentionally crashed the satellite on the far side of the moon, out of the sight of telescopes and radios -- meaning the space agency has no idea what happened to the craft.

New information sheds light on that decades-old loose end, from imagery taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft with a similar mission to its predecessor, sent to orbit the moon and map the entire lunar surface in incredible detail.

WATCH VIDEO: NASA smashes the LCROSS and spent Centaur rocket into the moon in a search for water on the lunar surface.

A new picture from the LRO details a strange, butterfly-shaped pattern that indicates a pile of lunar rubble -- but is from it a comet impact or the crash landing of a space probe? Not even scientists studying the image are sure.

"The impact appears much too large (approximately 85 meters in diameter) to be the result of an impact from a spacecraft only a few meters tall, but with a solar incidence angle of only 12 degrees, it is difficult to see the crater rim and find out the true diameter," wrote James Ashley on an Arizona State University website that studies images from LRO.

"The truth is that we are not sure what caused this impact feature," Ashley added. "We are currently re-targeting the area under a higher incidence angle to help with crater rim measurements. Stay tuned!"