After three months of eager anticipation, a hunk of errant rocket trash provided an excellent example of the laws of physics, smashing into the Moon right on schedule, just as observers anticipated. Although experts initially trace the rogue space debris back to a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage from a 2015 SpaceX launch, a closer look at the evidence indicated the material may have actually originated from a Chinese CZ-3C Y12 rocket.
Unsurprisingly, China disputes this assertion, although it seems hard to argue with, y’know, observable facts and basic mathematics. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard's Center for Astrophysics, tweeted that humanity’s little oopsie slammed into the dark side of the Moon’s Hertzprung crater at roughly 2.6 kms around 7:25 am EST, “because we trust Uncle Isaac [Newton]—successfully predicting the trajectory of things in space since 1687.”
