The impact of a colossal asteroid that hit the moon billions of years ago certainly changed the balance of the natural satellite.
As we know that the moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. That way, the moon has a fairly important role for conditions on Earth.
However, the condition of the moon is also not always stable. Billions of years ago a colossal asteroid hit the moon.
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Seeing the Colossal Asteroid Impact in the moon
Recent studies suggest that there was a large asteroid that hit the moon about 4.3 billion years ago. Then it’s been proven that it wreaks havoc on the moon’s mantle.
The moon is famous for having many craters on its surface. More than 9,000 visible craters exist on the lunar surface.
According to the Astronomical Union, the crater was formed as a result of a series of meteors, asteroids, and comets over billions of years.
However, the craters are not evenly distributed on the lunar surface. The far side of the moon that cannot be seen from Earth because they are tidally locked.
That is, the moon takes a long time to rotate and orbit the Earth. On the far side it turns out that there is a much higher concentration of craters than the near side.
That’s because the nearer part of the moon has a surface covered in lunar maria, vast expanses of dense lava that can be seen with the naked eye from Earth as dark patches.
Until now, the team has not been able to provide an explanation why only one side of the moon has a lava field.
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A Unique Phenomenon Occurs Inside the Moon’s Mantle
Scientists have long suspected that the lunar maria formed as a result of a massive collision that occurred about 4.3 billion years ago.
The collision eventually created the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, a large crater 1,600 miles (2,574 kilometers) wide and up to 5.1 miles (8.2 km) deep.
SPA is the largest hole on the moon due to a colossal asteroid impact. Cracker also confirmed it was the second largest impact in the solar system.
The new study shows that the SPA impact creates a unique phenomenon within the mantle of the moon. The layer of magma that is under the crust, only affects the near part.
“We know that the large impacts that make up the SPA create a lot of heat,” wrote Matt Jones, lead author of the study, a planetary science doctoral student at Brown University.
With computer simulations, it was revealed that the SPA impact would create a hot plume in the mantle. This then pushes the radioactive element toward the crust.
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The researcher also repeated the simulation to show the number of scenarios of the impact of the SPA. After that, regardless of how the asteroid hit, the mantle impact would only have an effect near the moon.
In other words, the impact of a colossal asteroid colliding with the moon caused lava from the mantle to flow toward the near side of the moon. It also buried many older impact craters. (R10/HR-Online)
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