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| The largest crater in the solar system is not what was thought: what was discovered on the moon
The largest crater on the moon and in the entire solar system was not created the way it was thought, and it could be much bigger.
The surface of the Moon is covered with a huge number of craters, which were created during millions of years of constant bombardment by asteroids. The largest crater on the Moon and in the entire Solar System is the South Pole-Aitken Basin, which is approximately 4 billion years old and is believed to be approximately 2500 km in diameter. A new study published in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters suggests that this giant crater was not created the way scientists thought and may be much larger, writes ScienceAlert.
According to scientists, studying the South Pole-Aitken basin is difficult due to the fact that it has huge dimensions, and therefore scientists are still trying to determine exactly what is the true diameter of this crater and what shape it really has.
Previous studies have shown that this crater was created as a result of the fall of a huge asteroid, which had an inclined trajectory during the impact. At the same time, the impact caused the formation of an oval rather than a round crater. This theory suggests that the debris from the impact traveled mainly in one direction from the south pole of the Moon.
Scientists used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009, and collects data about the surface and geology of our satellite. Scientists studied more than 200 objects scattered around the impact crater. The study showed that the South Pole-Aitken basin is still more round than oval.
Any impact of an asteroid leads to the release of rocks from the interior of the Moon and their distribution on the surface. Given that there is no erosion on the Moon caused by geological or atmospheric activity that could hide the evidence of an impact on Earth, they are still present on our planet's satellite.
According to the scientists, the more circular shape of the impact crater suggests that the asteroid did not fall on the moon at an angle, but rather hit almost perpendicularly. At the same time, the study reveals that the debris from the impact is more evenly distributed than expected. This means that robotic missions or astronauts will be able to access rocks from the Moon's interior, which are usually difficult to study. This will make it possible to understand how the process of the formation of the Moon actually took place, because it is still a subject of controversy among scientists.
It is now believed that the Moon is a piece of the Earth that broke away from it as a result of a collision with a huge object more than 4 billion years ago. But other theories suggest that the Moon was captured by Earth's gravity or formed from a cloud of debris orbiting our planet.
According to scientists, the perpendicular impact of the asteroid that created the South Pole-Aitken basin may explain some of the strange features of the crater. For example, measurements of the Moon's gravity in this region show that the crust of the Earth's satellite below the crater is much denser than its surroundings. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that there is a huge dense piece of asteroid hiding there.
