By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:08 BST, 10 June 2019 | Updated: 23:13 BST, 10 June 2019
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Scientists have detected a mysterious mass of material beneath a 1,200-mile crater on the surface of the moon.
The South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon is said to be the largest crater in the solar system and extends several miles deep.
And, according to the new research, the recently-spotted material is weighing down the basin floor by more than half a mile.
Scientists suspect the unusual deposit beneath the crater may contain metal from the asteroid that formed it.
Scientists have detected a mysterious mass of material beneath a 1,200-mile crater on the surface of the moon (circled). The simulations suggest that the material could be from the iron-nickel core of an asteroid
‘Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground,’ said lead author Peter B. James, from Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences.
‘That’s roughly how much unexpected mass we detected.’
In the study, the team analyzed data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission (GRAIL).
‘When we combined that with lunar topography data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we discovered that the unexpectedly large amount of mass hundreds of miles underneath the South Pole-Aitken basin,’ James said.
‘One of the explanations of this extra mass is that the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the moon’s mantle.’
The simulations suggest that the
