New research reveals that an asteroid impact billions of years ago created massive canyons on the far side of the moon. This impact, which occurred before the asteroid reached the lunar south pole, is considered beneficial for NASA's Artemis program as it aims to land astronauts at the south pole on the near side, where untouched, older rocks remain. The study, published in Nature Communications, used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to map the area and calculate the path of debris. The impact's energy was estimated to be over 130 times the world's current nuclear arsenal.
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.
LUNAR CANYONS ASTEROID IMPACT MOON ROCKS NASA ARTEMIS LUNAR EXPLORATION
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