The near side we know so well seems darker in places – It is the result of huge ancient lava flows –while the other side is covered with spots and craters, but there is no lava flow – read CNN in the article.
However, a study published last week in the journal Science Advances came up with a new explanation. Researchers at Brown University studied the largest impact crater on the moon’s surface, the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA). The crater, which is about 2,600 kilometers wide and eight kilometers deep, was formed by a massive space body that collided with the Moon at the time of the formation of the Solar System.
The researchers found that the impact that formed the pond could have created a huge heat plume spreading inside the moon. This crater transported some material to the near side of the Moon, feeding the volcanoes that created the volcanic plains.
“We know that large impacts such as the one that created the SPA generated a great deal of heat. The question is how does that heat affect the internal dynamics of the Moon,” said Matt Jones, a PhD candidate at Brown University and lead author of the study. concentrated in the near side, which contributed to the melting of the mantle that can be seen at the surface.
The researchers ran computer simulations of how the heat from a giant impact changes the pattern of heat transfer within the Moon, and how this might redistribute these elements in the lunar mantle.
The volcanic plains near the Moon are home to an array of elements such as potassium, rare earths, and phosphorous. Their brief name is Procellarum KREEP terrane (PKT), which is rare elsewhere on the Moon.
According to their model, the PKT material would have traversed the heat wave from the impact area as a “surfer”. As the thermal funnel spread under the lunar crust, the material eventually moved to the near side.
Arguably the manner in which the PKT was formed is the most important open question in lunar science. The Antarctic-Aitken crash is one of the most important events in the history of the Moon
Jones said in the statement.
(Cover Photo: Walid Zain/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
