Where did Russia’s Luna-25 crash on the moon, NASA’s orbiter found that place

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured a new image of a crater on the Moon, believed to be the result of Russia’s Luna 25 mission. The most recent LRO image was taken in June 2022, indicating that the crater formed sometime after this date. The Luna 25 mission experienced an anomaly during its descent, which caused it to impact the lunar surface. The LRO team believes that the newly formed crater is likely the result of this impact rather than a natural phenomenon.

This conclusion is based on the proximity of the new crater to the predicted impact point of the Luna 25 mission. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos published an estimate of the impact point on 21 August. The LRO camera team and the LRO mission operations team were able to design and send commands to the LRO spacecraft on August 22 to capture images of the site. The LROC team compared images taken before the time of impact and a sequence taken after and found a small new crater.

The new crater is about 10 meters in diameter and is located on the Moon at 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude. It is situated at an altitude of about 360 meters from zero. Interestingly, the impact point was on the steep inner rim of Ponteculant G crater, which has a grade of more than 20 degrees.