Arizona’s magnificent Grand Canyon is painstaking result of the Colorado River’s current wearing away the planet’s surface over millions of years.

Earth, however, isn’t the only body in the Solar System with canyons and gorges. The Moon has structures comparable to Earth’s Grand Canyon; although, in the absence of liquid water, their formation mechanism has been difficult to determine.

Now, scientists believe that they have figured it out. Two huge canyons scored into the surface of the Moon were created in the wake of a giant impact – and, in stark and jaw-dropping contrast to the Grand Canyon, their creation could have taken less than 10 minutes.