NASA Captures Images Revealing Final Moments of Twin Spacecraft Before Lunar Crash

When NASA crashed the two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission spacecraft into the moon last year, they didn't expect to see the aftermath. Yet now, the space agency has released before-and-after pictures of the lunar north pole where evidence of the crash can be seen.

Launched in September 2011, the twin spacecraft named Ebb and Flow journeyed to the moon in order to generate the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. They succeeded in their mission, giving scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved. Yet the spacecraft soon met their demise; they were intentionally crashed into the lunar surface in December 2012 after they were unable to continue science operations due to a lack of sufficient altitude and fuel.

The newest images, though, reveal the final moments of the spacecraft. Taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the pictures show that Ebb and Flow shattered into smithereens upon impact. In the image, the impact sites look like small dots--hard to see even by scientists who are looking for them.

"Both craters are relatively small, perhaps four to six meters [about 13 to 20 feet] in diameter, and both have faint, dark ejecta patterns, which is unusual," said Mark Robinson, LROC principle investigator, in a press release. "Fresh impact craters on the moon are typically bright, but these may be dark due to spacecraft material being mixed with the ejecta."

While still in commission, the spacecraft spent nearly a year flying in formation about 35 miles above the lunar surface. They slowly dipped lower in altitude until scientists deemed it was time to halt the $487 million mission. The crash site itself was chosen since it was far away from other historical locations, such as where the Apollo landings occurred.

Although the mission has ended, the information that scientists received from the two spacecraft is helping them make new discoveries. NASA researchers are still poring over the last set of data that the spacecraft sent just before they hurtled into the moon.

Want to see a video of the impacts? Check it out here.