- Recent discoveries by scientists suggest the existence of a hidden cavern beneath the moon's surface.
A trip to the Grand Canyon is a definite entry on the itinerary for anyone embarking on a US road trip.
Isn't Arizona the only place where an ambitious explorer can find a Grand Canyon.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's spacecraft, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has captured images of two vast impact basins on the lunar surface.
Named Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, these measure 270 kilometers long and 2.7 kilometers deep, and 280 kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers deep, respectively.
It makes them as long as the Grand Canyon and over three times as deep at their lowest points.
Scientists claim these riverbeds date back over six to seven million years, were formed in a mere 10 minutes.
The moon's canyons stretch out from a crater known as the Schrödinger impact basin, a 320-kilometer-wide crater located near the southernmost point of the moon, which was formed when a meteor collided with the lunar surface.
The researchers believe that these lunar valleys were carved into the rock by a stream of rocks ejected from the violent impact that occurred 3.81 billion years ago.
The Schrödinger crater is situated on the outskirts of the moon's 2,400-kilometer-wide South Pole–Aitken basin.
Researchers think that the formation of this crater came about when a massive meteor crashed into the moon's surface, resulting in an extremely violent impact that shot debris up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) beyond the crater's rim.
to form the crater.'
This resulted in debris falling in long, straight lines called ejecta rays, creating deep channels of overlapping craters such as Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck.
"Such rays are commonly observed on the Moon. For example, backyard astronomy enthusiasts will be familiar with the rays around Tycho and Copernicus craters on the Moon's near side," says Dr. Kring.
Researcher's created a three-dimensional map of these valleys by using photographs from NASA's probe.
In their paper, published in Nature Communications, the researchers estimate that the debris moved at speeds between 3,420 and 4,608 kilometers per hour turned into miles per hour, which equals 2,125 to 2,863 miles per hour.
In turn, this indicates that the fragments forming the canyon would be between two and five percent the size of the original meteor.
This means each fragment could have been up to 1,250 meters wide - more than 60 times larger than the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013.
Dr Kring says: "The energy required to create the two grand canyons on the moon was equivalent to the power of 130 times the total global nuclear arsenal.
'The study reveals that lunar canyons as large as Earth's Grand Canyon can be created in minutes, rather than taking millions of years. These canyons on the Moon are carved by meteorite-impact generated streams of rock, which are more effective at cutting through terrain than water on our planet.'
By tracing the ricocheted fragments back to their likely origin, the researchers have also pinpointed the meteor's probable impact location.
This point is actually located somewhat far from the center of the Schrödinger crater, situated at 78.2° South and 143.7° East.
This detail suggests that the meteor likely struck the lunar surface at a relatively shallow angle, scattering debris away from the moon's southernmost region.
The presence of ice on the Martian surface is not just an intriguing geological discovery, it's also a very promising finding for NASA's upcoming missions.
Located approximately 77 miles (125 km) from the edge of the Schrödinger basin.
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However, this study indicates that this issue is likely to be relatively minor.
Dr. Kring states: 'Research indicates that the majority of debris ejected from the Schrödinger basin fell outside of the Artemis exploration zone.
Future astronauts on the Artemis mission will have an easier time gathering rocks older than the Schrödinger impact.
'Schroedinger Impact occurred near the end of a period of heavy bombardment in the early days of the Solar System. Geologic samples obtained by missions to the lunar south pole are expected to provide insights into the scale and duration of the bombardment of asteroids and comets.'
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