Article Posted on : - Jul 30, 2011

An odd-looking impact feature on the lunar surface that was seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). Photo: NASA

WASHINGTON (BNS): Astronomers have predicted the strange scars on the surface of the moon as the remnants of NASA's Lunar Orbiter 2, according to a report.

According to Space.com, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera spotted the curious impact using its narrow-angle camera, which has such a high resolution that it can often see small features from Apollo-era spacecraft that either landed or crashed.

"The contrasting dark and light regions indicate differences in the composition and maturity of the lunar surface features", the website quoted James Ashley, a postdoctoral associate at Arizona State University (ASU) as saying.

Probably the scars are due to the crash landing of the sacecraft on the moon in 1967 at the end of its mission, the report said.

The unmanned Lunar Orbiter 2 was a spacecraft used in 1966 to help scope out possible landing sites for the Apollo and Surveyor missions.

The estimated coordinates of the Lunar Orbiter 2's impact site match those from the LROC image but the analysis has yet not given the proven result, it said.