(CNN) On April 11, the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft attempted to land on the moon in the ancient volcanic field called the Sea of Serenity -- but it crashed instead. Now, NASA has released images that helped researchers discover the crash site.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting for a decade, passed over the landing site April 22 and took images.

The photos, taken from 56 miles above the surface, feature a telling smudge 32.8 feet wide. There's a halo of lighter, more reflective material around the dark smudge, suggesting that the soil around the landing site smoothed out as it was blown away, the agency said.

This is a before and after comparison of the landing site, with the right side showing the aftermath.

It's not known whether the impact created a crater on the lunar surface. If there is one, it isn't visible in the photos, but that could be due to the distance. It's also possible that the impact formed only an indent, rather than a crater, because the spacecraft was lightweight and had a low velocity and a low approach angle, compared with a dense meteoroid of similar size.

The moon is impacted by material from space all the time, leaving craters behind. When the orbiter passes over the area again Sunday, it will record more images to look for a crater.

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