Before and after photos show impact of SpaceX rocket that slammed into Moon

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the sharpest views yet of a crater carved by a crashing SpaceX rocket. Earlier this month, the upper stage of a SpaceX rocket ploughedinto the Moon after drifting through space for more than a year. The fresh crater appears to be 18 metres across and less than 3m deep. A NASA spacecraft circling the Moon is providing the sharpest views yet of a crater carved by a crashing SpaceX rocket, with the space agency releasing before-and-after photos of the impact area. The SpaceX Falcon rocket's upper stage ploughedinto the Moon at 8,700 kilometres per hour on August 5 after drifting through space for more than a year. Between August 11 and August 12, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a series of images of the new crater. Based on these new photos, the fresh crater appears to be 18 metres across and less than 3m deep, according to scientists, who NASA said determined the measurements based on the length of the crater's shadow. Dark and bright streaks are clearly visible emanating like butterfly wings from the crater. The darker lines represent excavated material that was close to the surface and shaped by eons of solar wind, cosmic rays and micro-meteorite strikes. The brighter rays indicate fresh rocks and dirt that were hurled from farther down. The spacecraft photographed the crater a week after the collision from 96km up, while zooming along at 1.6km per second. Flight controllers had to tilt the spacecraft so its cameras pointed toward the impact scene. NASA said the spacecraft was required to "wait until that location turn[ed] into view, which took six days in this case". The orbiter completes a lunar polar orbit every two hours as the Moon rotates beneath. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting the Moon since 2009, serving as NASA's up-close eyes as the space agency works to return astronauts to the lunar surface.