New research reveals that an asteroid collision billions of years ago created two massive canyons on the far side of the moon. This discovery is significant for NASA's Artemis program, as it indicates that the lunar south pole on the near side, targeted for future astronaut landings, remains largely undisturbed and rich in ancient rocks.
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.
U.S. and British scientists used photos and data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to map the area and calculate the path of debris that produced these canyons about 3.8 billion years ago. They reported their findings Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. 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 Lunar Canyons Artemis Program Moon Exploration Ancient Rocks
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Bullet-fast moon rocks carved 2 lunar gorges deeper than the Grand CanyonCharles Q. Choi is a contributing writer for Space.com and Live Science. He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida.
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