Uncovering the Moon’s Biggest Mystery: The South Pole-Aitken Basin! 🚀🌕

Hey there, space explorers! Have you ever looked up at the moon and wondered what’s on its far side? Well, scientists have been super curious too! One of the biggest mysteries is a giant crater called the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin.

What’s the South Pole-Aitken Basin?

Imagine a crater so big, it stretches across a huge part of the moon’s far side! That’s the SPA Basin. It’s the largest and one of the oldest impact basins on the moon. Scientists think it was formed billions of years ago when a massive asteroid hit the moon. But exactly when did this happen? That’s the big question!

Why Is It Important?

Finding out the age of the SPA Basin can tell us a lot about the early days of not just the moon, but our entire solar system! It’s like finding a time capsule from billions of years ago.

How Do Scientists Study It?

Studying the moon isn’t easy, especially the far side! But thanks to missions like China’s Chang’e-4, which was the first to land on the moon’s far side in 2019, scientists have started to gather more clues.

They’ve found rocks and minerals that could help determine the age of the SPA Basin. By analyzing these samples, scientists hope to figure out when this huge crater was formed.

Future Missions 🚀

Exciting missions are planned, like Chang’e-6, which aims to bring back more samples from the SPA Basin. With these samples, scientists hope to finally solve the mystery of the SPA Basin’s age!

Why Should You Care?

Learning about the SPA Basin helps us understand how planets and moons were formed. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll be one of the scientists or astronauts exploring these lunar mysteries!

Reference(s):

Chang'e-6 samples date moon's oldest impact crater to 4.25b years ago

cgtn.com