A telescope in Chile has provided evidence of a SpaceX rocket impacting the Moon. The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope observed "spectral lines" of sodium and lithium gas within the plume of lunar dust created by the collision.
The rocket part struck the lunar surface at a speed of 8,690km/h (5,400mph). The ESO telescope recorded these "chemical fingerprints" of the plume, which remained visible for five to 10 minutes and measured a few tens of kilometres in size.
Astronomer Carl Schmidt from Boston University’s Center for Space Physics suggested that the sodium gas likely originated from the lunar soil, while traces of lithium may have come from the rocket stage itself. The impact occurred near the Moon’s terminator line, the boundary between its sunlit and far sides.