South Korea space agency shares Moon images after SpaceX rocket debris crash - BBC

South Korea's Korean AeroSpace Administration (KASA) released images captured by its lunar orbiter Danuri showing the Moon before and after part of a SpaceX rocket struck its surface on Wednesday.
The debris hit the Moon at approximately 06:35 GMT, and SpaceX confirmed the impact was not intentional.
The object was the empty upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket—roughly the size of a five-storey building and weighing around 4,000kg on Earth—which scientists predicted would strike at about 5,400mph (8,700km/h).
The rocket launched from Florida in January 2025 carrying two lunar landers; after sending them toward the Moon, the spent upper stage drifted in a looping orbit until gravitational nudges from the Earth, Moon and Sun, plus solar light pressure, put it on a collision course.
The brief flash from the impact occurred in daylight for much of the world and was too faint to observe even with telescopes, though larger observatories, including Seoul's space agency, are analysing the data.
Cambridge astronomer Matt Bothwell warned that space is becoming increasingly crowded with debris, cautioning it could become difficult to pass beyond Earth's orbit within a few decades, while the same booster from the January 2025 mission is scheduled for its 18th flight on 10 August to launch 29 Starlink satellites.