New images captured by a South Korean satellite have provided evidence that a school bus-sized piece of a rocket smashed into the moon, according to CBC News. The pictures documented an impact on the lunar surface that would otherwise have gone largely unseen.
According to the report, a four-ton SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon early on Wednesday morning. The debris struck the surface at about 600 kilometers per hour, hitting near what is known as the Einstein crater, just on the edge of what is visible from Earth.
The large piece of debris came from the second stage of a SpaceX rocket that was launched back in January 2025. Officials said unknown forces caused the roughly 4,000-kilogram chunk to drift off its path, setting it on a collision course with the moon.
The before-and-after images from the satellite show traces of where the object hit. However, there were no lunar spacecraft in orbit close enough to record the moment of impact up close, leaving the satellite views as the main evidence.
SpaceX said it did not intend for a piece of its rocket to smash into the moon. NASA, for its part, said that the impact posed no danger to people here on Earth, even as it drew attention to the object's uncontrolled path.
Scientists said the crash is also an opportunity to learn, because an impact that throws up lunar dust, including layers beneath the topsoil, can reveal information about the moon's structure and composition that is usually hard to access.
The incident has renewed a broader debate about who is responsible for the trash floating above Earth. One astronomer warned that as space travel becomes more frequent, the debris grows more dangerous, and experts noted that existing rules, written for the space-race era, apply to governments rather than the private companies now launching most satellites.