Researchers have uncovered the origin of two mysterious canyons near Schrödinger Crater on the Moon’s far side. According to a study published in Nature Communications, these trenches were not formed by asteroid impacts but rather by the effects of numerous secondary debris fragments ejected after the formation of the 320-kilometer-wide crater around 3.8 billion years ago. The crater itself resulted from a collision with an asteroid about 25 kilometers in diameter—far larger than the infamous “dinosaur killer” impactor on Earth.
The two massive structures—Schrödinger Valley and Planck Valley—stretch for hundreds of kilometers and have depths comparable to Earth’s canyons. Schrödinger Valley extends 270 kilometers and plunges to a depth of 2.7 kilometers, while Planck Valley is even more extensive. Along these valleys, numerous secondary craters are visible, formed by high-speed debris impacts. Scientists suggest that these fragments traveled northward at nearly one kilometer per second and struck the lunar surface at a shallow angle, carving elongated trenches.
Simulations indicate that the formation of these valleys took about ten minutes, with the impact energy surpassing the total power of Earth’s modern nuclear arsenal by a factor of 130. Rather than being gouged out by two large boulders, the lunar surface was likely scarred by streams of smaller debris, ranging from 500 meters to over a kilometer in diameter.
This discovery not only sheds light on the Moon’s geological history but also has practical implications for NASA’s Artemis program. Future astronauts will be landing south of Schrödinger Crater, and understanding the distribution of impact debris will help ensure safe landing sites and optimize sample collection.
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