A colossal impact on the Moon’s surface 3.8 billion years ago created two gargantuan canyons, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, in a geological blink of an eye.
A giant impact 3.8 billion years ago sent a curtain of rock flying away from a point near the Moon‘s south pole. When that curtain fell, its rocks plunged up to 3.5 kilometers into the lunar surface with energies 130 times greater than the global inventory of nuclear weapons.
The Moon is Earth's sole natural satellite, orbiting our planet at an average distance of about 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers).
It is a rocky, airless body with a cratered surface.
The Moon is thought to have formed around 4.5 billion years ago when a massive object collided with early Earth.
This collision caused debris to be thrown into orbit, eventually coalescing into the Moon.
The Moon's gravitational pull has a significant impact on Earth's tides and ocean currents.
The Birth of Two Gargantuan Canyons
And that’s how a hailstorm of boulders carved out two gargantuan canyons on the Moon in less than 10 minutes. The rocks landed in a staccato fashion, ‘bang-bang-bang-bang-bang’ , according to planetary geologist David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
The two channels, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, extend in straight lines from the 320-kilometer-wide ‘Schrödinger basin’ marking the initial impact. Until now, the circumstances of the canyons’ formation have been a mystery. The canyons are 270 and 280 kilometers long and up to 2.7 and 3.5 kilometers deep, respectively.
A Tale of Two Canyons
The south pole also contains some of the oldest rocks on the Moon, perhaps dating back to its formation about 4 billion years ago. Collecting samples from there would allow scientists to test some of the biggest mysteries about the Moon‘s history. However, there’s a potential problem: the rim of the ‘Schrödinger basin’ is about 125 kilometers from the anticipated landing site of NASA‘s Artemis astronauts.
Understanding the Moon’s History
The team found that the straight lines converge toward the southern edge of ‘Schrödinger basin’ , not the middle. That convergence suggests the impacting object came in toward the Moon at an angle, and splashed material preferentially northward, away from the Artemis exploration zone. This means that very little of the Schrödinger material is going to bury this very old terrain.
The findings provide an opportunity to peer deeper into lunar history and better understand the earliest epoch of the Earth-Moon system. The landscape of the south polar region of the Moon is so dramatic, according to Kring, ‘If it occurred on Earth, it would be a national or international park.’
The Earth-Moon system is a celestial body consisting of the planet Earth and its natural satellite, the Moon.
The Moon orbits Earth at an average distance of approximately 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers).
It takes about 27.3 days for the 'one orbit' around Earth.
The Moon's gravitational influence on Earth causes the tides, which play a crucial role in shaping our planet's coastlines.
The Earth-Moon system is also notable for its relatively stable and synchronized rotation periods.
- sciencenews.org | The moon’s two grand canyons formed in less than 10 minutes
