Tag: Lunar geology
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Moon Feeds on Earth’s Atmospheric Particles: A Groundbreaking Cosmic Exchange
New Insight: The Moon as a Silent Repository of Earth’s Atmosphere For decades, scientists have pondered how the Moon, with its airless surface, could bear evidence of Earth’s atmospheric chemistry. A striking new study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment reveals that the Moon has been collecting and storing particles from Earth’s upper atmosphere…
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Moon’s New Freckle: A Fresh Crater Named by Scientists
New Lunar Feature Named a ‘Freckle’ In a surprising and exciting update for lunar science, scientists have identified a new crater on the Moon, affectionately nicknamed a “freckle”. The discovery adds a fresh feature to the Moon’s already intricate surface map, offering researchers a new data point for understanding cratering processes, the Moon’s history, and…
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Astronomer Captures Two Moon-Impact Meteors: A Rare Lunar Collision Recorded on Film
Two Meteors Hit the Moon: A Rare Celestial Event In a striking display of celestial activity, two meteors slammed into the Moon on consecutive days, October 30 and November 1, catching observers by surprise. The events were captured by Daichi Fujii, a prominent Japanese astronomer and the curator of the Hiratsuka City Museum. The flashes,…
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What’s Odd About the Moon’s Largest Crater—and Why Artemis Astronauts Are Headed There
Introduction: A Giant Crater That Holds Inside Secrets The Moon’s far side hosts the Solar System’s largest known impact basin: the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. Spanning roughly 1,930 kilometers north-south and about 1,600 kilometers east-west, this ancient scar on the Moon’s crust formed around 4.3 billion years ago when a colossal asteroid struck the young…
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What the Moon’s Largest Crater Reveals About Its Hidden Past—and Artemis’ Next Destination
Unraveling a Moonwired Mystery: A Basin That Changes Our View The Moon is not a perfectly uniform little world orbiting Earth. Its far side hosts the largest known impact basin in the Solar System—the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. Spanning roughly 1,930 kilometers from north to south and about 1,600 kilometers east to west, the SPA…
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Moon’s Largest Crater Reveals Hidden Clues as Artemis Eyes South Pole-Aitken
Understanding the Moon’s Hidden History The Moon wobbles through space in a quiet duet with Earth: it spins on its axis in roughly the same time it takes to orbit our planet, a phenomenon known as synchronous rotation. This lock means we always see the same face, while the far side remains largely mysterious to…
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Moon’s Largest Crater Origins Rewritten: SPA Basin Study
Scientists Propose a New Twist on the Moon’s Largest Crater For decades, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin has stood as a giant, enigmatic scar on the Moon. Measuring more than 1,200 miles across, it is the planet’s largest known impact structure. A recent paper published in Nature challenges long-held assumptions about how this colossal crater…
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A New Take on the Moon’s Largest Crater: Could SPA’s Shape Rewrite Lunar History?
A fresh perspective on the Moon’s biggest crater For decades, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin has stood as a cornerstone of lunar geology. Spanning more than 1,200 miles across, it is the Moon’s largest known impact feature and a key target for NASA’s Artemis program. A new paper published in Nature challenges a long-held assumption:…
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Giant northern asteroid crash reshaped the Moon and left radioactive clues, study finds
The Moon’s oldest wound may trace back to a northern strike Billions of years ago, a colossal asteroid plowed into the Moon, carving out the South Pole–Aitken basin—the solar system’s biggest and oldest known impact site. A new study led by planetary scientist Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna of the University of Arizona, published in Nature, argues that…
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Did a Northern Asteroid Crash Make the Moon Radioactive? New Findings Reframe Lunar History
Big Impact, Big Consequences: Rethinking the Moon’s oldest scar For decades, scientists have grappled with the South Pole–Aitken basin, the Moon’s colossal imprint that stretches nearly 2,000 kilometres across. A landmark study led by planetary scientist Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna from the University of Arizona, published in Nature, offers a fresh view: the asteroid that carved this…