The far side of the moon holds secrets about its mysterious trenches near the south pole. Recent findings suggest that these massive formations, comparable in size to the Grand Canyon, likely took shape in just minutes. Scientists believe they were sculpted by an ancient impact billions of years ago.
According to David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the immense forces unleashed by this event hurled massive amounts of rocky debris across the lunar surface. Computer simulations point to a catastrophic event that occurred about 3.8 billion years ago, involving a 15-mile-wide space rock releasing energy equivalent to 130 times the global stockpile of nuclear weapons in under 10 minutes.
The impact tore two canyons, each stretching around 170 miles in length. Data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed that boulders sped across the moon at nearly 2,200 miles per hour. Straight-line features near the Schrödinger impact basin trace the path of these ejected fragments.
Researchers believe that this ancient collision triggered a surge of asteroids directed toward the inner solar system and shifted the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Artemis program aims to send astronauts to the moon’s polar region for the first time since the 1970s, potentially collecting core samples from these deep sites.
The study published in Nature Communications sheds light on the moon’s formation after a huge object struck Earth in the distant past, leaving behind the natural satellite we see today. The discovery highlights the value of studying ancient surfaces and could refine our knowledge of lunar geology and the origins of rocky bodies across the solar system.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/asteroid-impact-carved-massive-canyons-on-the-moon-in-minutes