China National Space Administration
After all, the crater could be much larger and would have been formed after a more vertical impact than previously thought, “like someone throwing a stone straight against the ground”.
It seems that bacia do Polo Sul-Aitkenthe oldest and largest lunar crater, is even more extensive than scientists thought. According to a new study led by Hannes Bernhardt, a geologist at the University of Maryland, this gigantic formation may be much larger than previous studies indicate.
Located on the far side of the Moon, the South Pole-Aitken basin has a diameter of approximately 2,500 km, and covers almost 25% of the lunar surface. The gigantic crater appears to have more than 4 billion yearsthat is, it has had more than enough time to suffer other impacts that have hidden part of its structure.
The new study, in Earth & Planetary Science Letterschallenges many of the existing ideas about the impact that formed the crater and distributed the ejecta. “We are now one step closer to better understanding the history and evolution of the Moon over time,” commented the author.
Until now, most studies on the crater showed that it appeared when a large object collided with the Moon at an oblique angleleaving behind an oval-shaped rather than circular crater. In this case, the debris from the collision would have spread in one direction, away from the south pole of our natural satellite.
To further investigate the details of the impact, Bernhardt and the other authors analyzed the geological formations on the Moon’s current surface. They worked with more than 200 mountain formations scattered around the base of the basin, which could be traces of the crater rim. However, after cataloging and mapping the formations, the authors noticed that they created a much more circular shape than expected.
“A rounder, more circular shape indicates that an object struck the Moon’s surface at a most vertical anglepossibly similar to throwing a stone straight against the ground”, explained the author. This implies that impact debris must be more evenly distributed than previously thought.
“This This means that astronauts in the Artemis program or robots in the lunar south pole region may be able to study in detail rocks deep in the lunar crust or mantle — materials that would otherwise be impossible to access”, he added.
Analysis of such materials is important because it can help scientists better understand the formation of the Moon. Furthermore, the angle of the impact may also explain some peculiar features of this region — for example, lunar gravity data in the area suggests that the Moon’s crust region has a much higher density than its surroundings.
The Chang’e 6 mission this year 1.9 kilograms of rock from the far side of the Moon, specifically from this crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin. Recent research reveals that the far side of the Moon was also volcanically active and that it is poor in potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus, unlike the visible side.
