A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar systemâthe Moonâs South Pole-Aitken basinâand may contain metal from the asteroid that crashed into the Moon and formed the crater, according to a Baylor University study.
âImagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. Thatâs roughly how much unexpected mass we detected,â said lead author Peter B. James.
Ph.D., assistant professor of planetary geophysics in Baylorâs College of Arts & Sciences. The crater itself is oval-shaped, as wide as 2,000 kilometersâroughly the distance between Waco, Texas, and Washington, D.C.âand several miles deep. Despite its size, it cannot be seen from Earth because it is on the far side of the Moon.
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