The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) photographed a new crater on the lunar surface that is likely the crash site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission. This has been reported by NASA. area and post photos.
As the American agency wrote, the Luna-25 station “collided with an anomaly” during the descent, as a result of which on August 19 it crashed into the surface of the moon.
Roscosmos published the coordinates of the drop point on 21 August. On August 22, the LROC team and the LRO Mission Operations team were able to send commands to the LRO spacecraft to take pictures. The ship took the photo on August 24. The LROC team compared images taken before the collision with a few images after the station crash and found a small new crater. The last “before” shot of the area was taken by the LRO in June 2022 (frame # M1410024427R); therefore, the crater was formed some time after this date. Because this new crater was close to Luna 25’s assumed impact point, the LRO team concluded that it was most likely due to this mission and not a natural impact.
The Russian station crashed into the southwestern rim of Ponteculan G crater on August 19, 2023, at 07:58 ET (11:58 UTC).
The new crater is about 10 meters in diameter and is located at 57,865 degrees south latitude and 61,360 degrees east longitude, at an altitude of about minus 360 meters. The impact point was approximately 400 kilometers from Luna 25’s planned landing site at 69,545 degrees south latitude and 43,544 degrees east longitude, on the steep (more than 20 degrees inclined) inner rim of Ponteculan G crater.
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