A new study reveals that an asteroid impact billions of years ago created two massive canyons on the far side of the Moon. The impact, which sent debris hurtling at nearly 1 mile per second, occurred near the lunar south pole but did not affect the near side, where NASA plans to land astronauts. These older rocks can provide valuable insights into both the Moon's and Earth's origins.
This image from NASA shows a view from orbit looking obliquely across the surface of the moon, where an ancient asteroid strike carved out a pair of grand canyons on the moon’s far side.New research shows that when an asteroid slammed into the moon billions of years ago, it carved out a pair of grand canyons on the lunar far side., which is looking to land astronauts at the south pole on the near, Earth-facing side untouched by that impact and containing older rocks in original condition.
The incoming space rock passed over the lunar south pole before hitting, creating a huge basin and sending streams of boulders hurtling at a speed of nearly 1 mile a second . The debris landed like missiles, digging out two canyons comparable in size to Arizona’s Grand Canyon in barely 10 minutes. The latter, by comparison, took millions of years to form.
Kring and his team estimate the asteroid was 15 miles across and that the energy needed to create these two canyons would have been more than 130 times that in the world’s current inventory of nuclear weapons.That means NASA’s targeted exploration zone around the pole mostly on the moon’s near side won’t be buried under debris, keeping older rocks from 4 billion plus years ago exposed for collection by moonwalkers.
ASTEROID IMPACT MOON CANYONS NASA ARTEMIS PROGRAM
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