NASA Knows What The "Mystery" Spacecraft Orbiting The Moon Is

 

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Elsewhere on the Internet, you may have read of a "mystery" object photographed orbiting the Moon, which has been identified by NASA.

The photos, which are real, show a thin dark streak above the lunar surface, moving at an apparent great speed. The image was captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – but despite media reports of mysterious "surfboards" flying above the Moon, there is no great mystery as to what the object is, and there never has been.

The LRO's camera (LROC) was poised and ready to capture the image, which they needed to be as the object beneath it was traveling at relative velocities of over 3.2 kilometers per second (2 miles per second).

"Due to the fast relative velocities between the two spacecraft (about 7,200 miles, or 11,500 kilometers, per hour), the LRO operations team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, needed exquisite timing in pointing LROC to the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of Danuri, the Republic of Korea’s first spacecraft at the Moon," NASA explained in a statement.

During three orbits that happened to be close enough to Danuri, the LRO captured images from up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) above it.

Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Capturing the image required split-second timing and fast shutter speeds, but despite this blurring was still inevitable. 

"Although LRO’s camera exposure time was very short, only 0.338 milliseconds, Danuri still appears smeared to 10 times its size in the opposite direction of travel because of the relative high travel velocities between the two spacecraft," NASA explained.

The South Korean spacecraft is also capable of taking photographs. Using the NASA-funded instrument ShadowCam, the orbiter captured an image of LRO in April 2023.

Image credit: NASA/KARI/Arizona State University

Now, thanks to excellent timing from NASA, we have both views.