A segment of a SpaceX rocket that launched seven years ago is on course to crash into the moon.
Additionally, its orbit was not high enough to escape the gravity pull between Earth and the moon, leaving the booster in a"chaotic orbit."A SpaceX Falcon9 rocket blasts off the launch pad, Feb. 11, 2015, carrying the NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft.
"It's been up there -- just an inert piece of space junk -- for the past seven years," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told ABC News."Because of its orbit, it keeps coming somewhat close to the moon and that changes its orbit unpredictably, and so the moon keeps tugging on it and changes it orbit."
It's not clear exactly where the booster will hit because sunlight can"push" it to slightly change course, but the four-ton segment is going to crash at 5,600 mph, likely creating a crater with a diameter several feet wide., said the collision is nothing to worry about. Additionally, in 2009, NASA's LCROSS spacecraft purposely slammed into the moon to collect data about the impact.
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