{"id":205930,"date":"2025-10-11T20:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205930\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T20:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:44:08","slug":"theres-something-really-strange-about-the-moons-largest-crater-where-nasa-astronauts-are-due-to-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205930\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s Something Really Strange About the Moon\u2019s Largest Crater, Where NASA Astronauts Are Due to Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have found that we may have been wrong about how the Moon\u2019s largest crater, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin<\/a>, formed roughly 4.3 billion years ago.<\/p>\n

As detailed in a new paper<\/a> published in the journal Nature, the more than 1,200-mile crater appears to have been the result of a glancing, southward blow \u2014 and not a head-on asteroid impact, as previously thought.<\/p>\n

The findings could help explain why the Moon\u2019s far side is riddled with large craters, while the more explored near side is relatively smooth. And they could also have \u201cimportant implications for the upcoming human exploration of the lunar south pole\u201d by NASA\u2019s Artemis program, the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the space agency\u2019s \u201cmissions will be landing on the down-range rim of the basin \u2014 the best place to study the largest and oldest impact basin on the Moon, where most of the ejecta, material from deep within the Moon\u2019s interior, should be piled up,\u201d as study lead and University of Arizona planetary scientist Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna explained in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other words, the region where we\u2019re planning to land the first astronauts on the Moon in over half a century, a mere two years from now,<\/a> could hold even more clues about the Moon\u2019s evolution and its interior structure than we thought \u2014 a happy accident that should have us even more excited about NASA\u2019s long-awaited return.<\/p>\n

The team analyzed the shape of the SPA and compared it to other giant impact basins across the solar system. They found that its oblong, teardrop shape was likely the result of a southward blow, gouging through the Moon\u2019s crust and revealing heavier minerals in the process.<\/p>\n

Current theories suggest that the Moon was once covered in a magma ocean<\/a>, the result of the energy it released when it formed. Heavier minerals sank to form its solid mantle, while lighter minerals floated to its surface to form its crust.<\/p>\n

Some \u201cleftover\u201d minerals, such as potassium, rare earth elements, and phosphorus \u2014 or \u201cKREEP,\u201d for short \u2014 evaded much of this process and instead became concentrated in the remaining magma ocean and eventually trapped between the mantle and crust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever left a can of soda in the freezer, you may have noticed that as the water becomes solid, the high fructose corn syrup resists freezing until the very end and instead becomes concentrated in the last bits of liquid,\u201d Andrews-Hanna explained. \u201cWe think something similar happened on the moon with KREEP.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, KREEP-rich material accumulated far more on the Moon\u2019s near side, and not its far more once volcanically active far side, a striking asymmetry that remains a major mystery.<\/p>\n

The latest findings suggest that the \u201ccrust thickened on the far side, the magma ocean below was squeezed out to the sides, like toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube, until most of it ended up on the near side,\u201d Andrews-Hanna explained.<\/p>\n

The gash formed by the southward impact suggests the SPA is located at the boundary of the KREEP-rich crust and the more \u201cregular\u201d crust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last dregs of the lunar magma ocean ended up on the near side, where we see the highest concentrations of radioactive elements,\u201d Andrews-Hanna said. \u201cBut at some earlier time, a thin and patchy layer of magma ocean would have existed below parts of the far side, explaining the radioactive ejecta on one side of the SPA impact basin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings highlight how much there still is to learn about our closest celestial neighbor \u2014 and how our existing knowledge is far from set in stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Artemis, we\u2019ll have samples to study here on Earth, and we will know exactly what they are,\u201d Andrews-Hanna argued. \u201cOur study shows that these samples may reveal even more about the early evolution of the moon than had been thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the Moon\u2019s craters: Scientists Say There\u2019s Over a Trillion Dollars of Platinum Waiting to Be Extracted From the Moon\u2019s Craters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have found that we may have been wrong about how the Moon\u2019s largest crater, the South Pole-Aitken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,99333,99336,66,306,11657],"class_list":{"0":"post-205930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crater","11":"tag-magma-ocean","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-the-moon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}