Two vast canyons on the far side of the moon, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, were not carved by water like the Grand Canyon. Instead, these canyons were formed in a matter of minutes by a series of smaller impact events that followed a massive asteroid or comet collision. The impactor, estimated to have been traveling at 38,000 miles per hour, excavated the canyons in a staccato series of impacts, leaving behind a chain of round craters.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. Astronomers have long been puzzled by two vast canyons on the far side of the moon, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck. These canyons, each over 165 miles long and over 1.5 miles deep, resemble remarkably straight lines extending outward from a circular crater known as the Schrödinger impact basin.
The basin is the result of a massive impact that occurred roughly 3.8 billion years ago. Unlike the Grand Canyon in Arizona, which was carved by water over millions of years of slow erosion, these lunar canyons were formed in a dramatically different way.According to a new study, these two canyons were created by a series of smaller impact events that followed the initial asteroid or comet collision with the moon. The impactor, moving at an estimated 38,000 miles per hour, would have penetrated about 15 miles into the lunar surface, throwing up an asymmetrical pattern of debris. This curtain of rock plummeted back down to the surface in a staccato series of impacts, excavating a chain of round craters that formed the canyons. The energy released by this impact was immense. The researchers estimate that it was 1200–2200 times larger than the nuclear explosion energy once proposed for excavating a second Panama Canal on Earth. It was more than 700 times larger than the total yield of nuclear explosion tests by the US, USSR, and China, and about 130 times larger than the energy in the global inventory of nuclear weapons. While these particular lunar canyons are hidden on the far side of the moon, similar, but smaller canyons can be seen radiating out from the bright spot that is Tycho Crater on the near side. These are visible to the naked eye on a clear night, resembling the white rays emanating from Tycho, which is a little below the equator. While the Schrödinger canyons are on a much larger scale, the phenomenon is the same
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