A NASA spacecraft spotted something weird orbiting the moon. It was just a lunar neighbor.

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NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped a wonderfully timed picture because it crossed paths with one other spacecraft orbiting the moon.

The LRO, which has been orbiting the moon for 15 years, captured a number of pictures of the Korea Aerospace Analysis Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter as the 2 spacecraft, touring in almost parallel orbits, zoomed previous one another in reverse instructions throughout three orbits between March 5 and March 6, in accordance with a statement from NASA.

Danuri, the Republic of Korea’s first moon-explorer, has been in lunar orbit since December 2022. On the time the photographs have been taken, Danuri was orbiting under the LRO, which was flying 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the moon’s floor.

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Relative velocities between the 2 spacecraft have been about 7,200 miles per hour (11,500 kilometers per hour), NASA officers mentioned, making it difficult for the LRO’s slim angle digicam to hone in on Danuri. The LRO’s digicam publicity time was roughly 0.338 milliseconds, inflicting Danuri to look smeared throughout the picture and stretched 10 occasions its dimension, because it traveled swiftly in the other way of the LRO.

“The LRO operations workforce at NASA’s Goddard House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, wanted beautiful timing in pointing LROC to the correct place on the proper time to catch a glimpse of Danuri,” NASA officers mentioned within the assertion.

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A dark streak over the moon as seen by a NASA spacecraft. — A darkish streak over the moon as seen by a NASA spacecraft.(Picture credit score: NASA)

NASA’s LRO had three alternatives to snap photographs of Danuri throughout shut flybys. For the primary snapshot, LRO was 3 miles (5 kilometers) above Danuri and oriented down 43 levels from its typical place wanting down on the lunar floor. In capturing the orbiter with its new positioning, Danuri appeared kind like a disk-shaped streak throughout the center of the picture.

For the second picture, LRO was nearer to Danuri, about 2.5 miles (4 km), and oriented 25 levels towards it. Then, on the final flyby, LRO was reoriented by 60 levels to catch a remaining glimpse of Danuri because it flew 5 miles (8 km) under.

This is not the primary time the 2 spacecraft have crossed paths. Utilizing its ShadowCam instrument, supplied by NASA, Danuri photographed LRO from a distance of about 11 miles (18 km) on April 7, 2023.