Largest crater of the Moon were formed about 3,800 million years old – LaRepública.pe

EFE. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University, in the united States, have discovered the origin of Oriental, the largest crater of the Moon formed 3,800 million years old and with a diameter of 930 kilometres, according to published this Thursday, the magazine Science.

The discovery was the result of two studies reported in two separate articles, was possible thanks to data collected in 2012, the satellites of the mission Lab Interior and Gravity Recovery (GRAIL), NASA.

according To the study of the geologist Brandon Johnson, of Brown University, the asteroid that created the crater, Oriental hit to 15 kilometers per hour against the Moon and had 64 kilometers of diameter.

That impact created a crater whose dimensions (between 320 and 460 km in diameter), which do not coincide with the current already collapsed by the fractures of the rock and their temperatures forming three concentric rings visible today.

“Large impacts like the one that formed Oriental were the major drivers of changes in the crusts of the planets of the solar system. Thank you to the amazing data provided by GRAIL, we better understand how they formed these basins, and we can use such knowledge to other planets and moons,” Johnson said.

Oriental is located in the extreme southwest of the Moon, on the edge of his face visible, and it is a model study on the formation of craters.