NASA has shared images of an unidentified spacecraft that has crashed into the moon.
The spacecraft has left two large craters on the planet, which NASA has said is ‘unlike anything it's seen before’.
While no one has come forward to claim the rocket yet, one astronomer is convinced it hails from China.
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NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the spacecraft and started tracking it through space back in 2015. The rocket crashed onto the moon on 4 March and was travelling at over five kilometres per second.
The space agency published a post about the unidentified spacecraft on 24 June alongside photos of the crash site.
NASA wrote in part: “Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-metre diameter, about 19.5 yards) superimposed on a western crater (16-metre diameter, about 17.5 yards).
“The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the body had large masses at each end.
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“Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank.”
The post added: “Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity.”
Astronomer Bill Gray is convinced he knows where the spacecraft came from, telling the BBC: “I'm 99.9 percent sure it's the China 5-T1,” although China has denied this.
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In May, NASA announced it would step up its efforts to hunt for UFOs.
NASA confirmed it would assist the US government’s investigations into the search for extraterrestrial life following the first congressional hearings into ‘Unexplained Aerial Phenomena’ (UAPs) in more than 50 years.
During a 90-minute meeting in Washington late last month, officials told those in attendance that reports of UAPs had doubled in the last year.
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It was decided that the US military would start considering unknown aircraft sightings as a matter of national security and an anonymous US government source confirmed the move will see NASA gather evidence from astronauts who claimed to have seen unidentified objects in space.
The source told MailOnline: “I suspect it will be a combination of efforts that will include perhaps firsthand eyewitness testimony of NASA employees and astronauts, and then perhaps a review of old archival footage to assess if there are some findings within the NASA archives that can help [the UAP task force].”
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Aisha Nozari