The mystery around the so-called “Face of the Moon” of our satellite has already been revealed thanks to a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
Previously, scientists had believed that this curious shape on this side of the Moon was nothing but the consequence of the impact of an asteroid that would have left such a mark on the star. Now, they are convinced that this giant basin on the side closest to the Earth is not the product of an asteroid but the remains of a large column of magma from the depths of the Moon itself .
The analysis of the data from NASA’s GRAIL mission has been the ones that have provided sufficient evidence for the creation of a high-resolution map of the Procellarum region, the specific area where this huge, more or less circular basin with a size of about 1,800 kilometers in diameter .
Thanks to this map, the researchers discovered that the border of the basin is not circular but polygonal and that it is composed of acute angles, so it is impossible that they were created by the impact of an asteroid. Rather, the angular contour was most likely produced by giant stress cracks in the Moon’s crust as it cools around a plume of hot material from deep within the Moon. Thus, through these cracks, the magma was able to wander calmly across the surface and create this gigantic basin.
The study has been published in the journal Nature .
