2026-08-04 10:54:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：迈尔斯·多兰、马克·奥斯本
更新于：2026年8月4日 / 美国东部时间上午11:24 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
一枚失控的SpaceX“猎鹰9号”火箭助推器重约8800磅，预计将于周三凌晨撞击月球，这是极为罕见的人造物体与月球表面相撞事件。
这枚火箭的上级段曾在2025年1月将两艘月球着陆器送入太空，当两艘航天器各自启程后，它便脱离了轨道。此次任务部分取得成功：Firefly公司的“蓝幽灵-1”号成功着陆，但日本的“白兔-R”号却在月球表面坠毁。
但这枚长约45英尺、宽约12英尺的火箭此后一直处于轨道运行中——直到美国东部时间周三凌晨2点35分左右，预计它将以5400英里的时速撞击月球表面。
SpaceX负责NASA科学项目及“龙”飞船项目的主管朱莉安娜·沙伊曼在周一的新闻发布会上表示，公司在2025年1月15日发射“猎鹰9号”二级火箭后，已遵循“适当的规章制度”进行了妥善处置，但“实际情况是，太阳活动和引力共同作用，将它推上了撞向月球的轨道”。
不过别指望能看到撞击场面——撞击过程会非常迅速，肉眼完全无法观测。根据近24位科学家发布的关于此次即将发生的撞击的研究报告，即便使用超大口径望远镜的观测者也可能一无所获。
美国国家航空航天局证实，月球勘测轨道飞行器——一颗环绕月球运行的小型卫星——将拍摄撞击前后的照片，但可能需要一到两周时间才能看到相关图像。
“作为一名科学家，我也非常期待能观测到这次撞击，”沙伊曼对记者说道。
研究表明，由于撞击发生在月球的光照面，因此几乎不可能或很难探测到撞击闪光。研究人员称，迄今为止，人类从未在月球光照面观测到过自然或人造撞击闪光。
月球经常遭受天体撞击，但通常都是流星体等自然现象。人造撞击事件相对较少。
研究称，这枚火箭的质量远大于大多数天然月球撞击体，但速度也要慢得多。不过，此次撞击的当量仍相当于2.8吨TNT炸药，将形成直径65至100英尺、深约16英尺的陨石坑。
首个撞击月球的人造物体是1959年苏联发起的有意撞击任务。1969年至1972年的阿波罗任务期间，有多件美国制造的航天器部件撞击了月球。1993年，日本的一枚机器人探测器撞击了月球；2006年，欧洲空间局的一颗卫星与月球表面相撞。
2009年，NASA故意将一枚火箭的上级段撞向月球南极的一处永久阴影陨石坑，以探测那里是否存在水冰。此次撞击扬起了可能已有数十亿年未见过直射阳光的物质羽流。该任务证实了月球南极存在水冰，这也是美国、中国等国家希望在那里建立月球基地的主要原因之一。
与2009年的那次撞击类似，预计在SpaceX火箭撞击后的数分钟内，一团月球尘埃乃至可能的气体/蒸汽云将被抛射到月球表面上方。
波士顿大学空间物理中心的行星科学家卡尔·施密特告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，他希望通过分析这些数据，弄清月球该区域地表下隐藏了多少水冰。
“几乎所有能将望远镜对准这片区域的人都会这么做，”施密特说道。
SpaceX rocket booster is on a 5,400-mph collision course with the moon, expected to leave crater 16 feet deep
2026-08-04 10:54:00-0400 / CBS News
By Miles Doran, Mark Osborne
Updated on: August 4, 2026 / 11:24 AM EDT / CBS News
A wayward 8,800-pound SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster is expected to slam into the moon very early on Wednesday in a rare case of a man-made collision with the lunar surface.
The upper part of the rocket, which boosted two lunar landers into space in January 2025, disengaged as the two spacecraft went on their way. The mission was partly successful, as Firefly’s Blue Ghost-1 made a successful landing, but Japan’s ispace Hakuto-R crash-landed on the surface.
But the rocket, which is about 45 feet long and 12 feet wide, has been in orbit ever since — until about 2:35 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday when it’s expected to crash into the lunar surface at a speed of 5,400 mph.
Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX’s director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs, said in a press conference Monday the company followed “the appropriate rules and regulations” for properly disposing of the Falcon 9 second stage after launching it on Jan. 15, 2025, but “what has happened is essentially a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path towards the moon.”
Don’t expect to see anything though — the impact will be very quick and impossible to see with the naked eye. Even observers with very large telescopes may not see anything, according to a study about the upcoming collision released by almost two dozen scientists.
The full moon is seen over Sydney, Australia, on July 29, 2026. Izhar Khan/Getty Images
Before and after photos will be taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — a small satellite that orbits the moon — but it will likely take a week or two before they are seen, NASA confirmed.
“As a scientist, I also am very excited to see the observation,” Scheiman told reporters.
It will be challenging or impossible to detect the impact flash because the impact is happening on the lit side of the moon, according to the study. To date, no natural or artificial impact flash has ever been observed on the lit side of the moon, researchers say.
The moon is regularly pelted by objects, but they are usually natural occurrences, like meteoroids. The number of artificial impacts is relatively few.
The object is significantly more massive than most natural lunar impactors, but is also moving much more slowly, the study said. Still, the impact will be the equivalent of 2.8 tons of TNT, according to the study, and leave a crater of 65 to 100 feet in diameter that is about 16 feet deep.
The first man-made object to hit the moon was an intentional collision launched by the Soviet Union in 1959. A couple of U.S.-built spacecraft parts hit the moon during the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. A Japanese robotic probe hit the moon in 1993 and a European Space Agency satellite collided with the lunar surface in 2006.
In 2009, NASA intentionally crashed the upper stage of a rocket into a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole to determine if water ice existed there. The impact exposed a plume of material that might not have seen direct sunlight for billions of years. The mission confirmed the presence of water ice at the lunar south pole, one of the major reasons why countries like the United States and China want to build moon bases there.
Like that collision in 2009, in the minutes following the impact of the SpaceX rocket, a cloud of lunar dust and possibly gas/vapor is expected to be lofted above the surface.
Carl Schmidt, a planetary scientist at Boston University’s Center for Space Physics, told CBS News he hopes by analyzing that data he could determine how much water ice was hidden below the surface on that part of the moon.
“Just about everyone who can point a telescope at this object is going to,” Schmidt said.