Vast asteroid created 'Man in Moon's eye' crater

BBC ^ | Rebecca Morelle

[MtnClimber]

One of the Moon's biggest craters was created by an asteroid more than 250km (150 miles) across, a study suggests.

It smashed into the lunar surface about 3.8 billion years ago, forming Mare Imbrium - the feature also known as the right eye of the "Man in the Moon". Scientists say the asteroid was three times bigger than previously estimated and debris from the collision would have rained down on the Earth.

The asteroid was so big it could be classified as a protoplanet - a space rock with the potential to become a fully formed world.

Lead author Prof Peter Schultz, a planetary geologist from Brown University in the United States, said: "One implication of this work is that the asteroids may not have been these small chunks flying around - there may have been many more of these very large protoplanets. "It would have been a catastrophic period of time."

[MtnClimber]

That would give you a black eye.

[Donglalinger]

We all know how it got there

[PROCON]

Stop right there!

Calling it a "Man in the Moon" eye is not only sexist but Hetero-normative and hurtful.

Let's start referring to this phenomena as the "Zie in the Moon" to be more inclusive and to not offend anyone. </dumbassliberalmoron>

[Talisker]

"This was a time when Jupiter and Saturn were changing their position in the Solar System," said Prof Schultz,

[MtnClimber]

The history of violence against gender questioning moons goes way back and explains the situation today.

[DAC21]

How many millions of taxpayer dollars did we pay those morons to state the obvious?

[GingisK]

I figure this news is just a few millenniums old.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Calling it the Moon is Eurocentric and dispositive toward oribital bodies that may feel like planets themselves.

[PROCON]

..and dispositive toward oribital bodies that may feel like planets themselves.

Yes, there is too much hate and intolerance towards many lesser known heavenly orbs, which deserve as much dignity and recognition as the well known celestial celebrities such as the moon, alpha centauri and that hot thingy out there called the sun.

My heart is sad and my spirit is broken.

[RegulatorCountry]

Given the Moon’s geosyncrhonous orbit, the site of that crater facing Earth means that the 150 mile wide asteroid that created it had a very near miss with Earth. That is, unless the impact of the asteroid didn’t somehow set the Moon reeling and it then settled into geosynchronous orbit.

[VanDeKoik]

Nothing gets past these guys.

[Blood of Tyrants]

How is this news? Haven’t we known for a long time that asteroids caused moon craters?

[Beowulf9]

“How is this news? Haven’t we known for a long time that asteroids caused moon craters?”

Yeah but we didn’t know it was a really really REALLLLLLY big one!

[Rebel_Ace]

"...Given the Moon’s geosynchronous orbit..."

I believe you are conflating "geosynchronous orbit" with "tidal locking".

The Moon is NOT in a geosynchronous orbit. A geosynchronous orbit has the property where the satellite appears to be stationary in the sky when viewed from the ground. It appears to magically "hang" there, since it's orbital period matches the Earth's rotation of 24 hours.

The Moon takes about 28 days to orbit the Earth, and on any given day, you will find it in different places in the sky. The Moon also takes about 28 days to rotate on its own axis, so it always shows the same face to the Earth. This is "tidal locking".

That said, some 3.8 billion years ago, Earth's rotation was much faster, the Moon orbited closer to the Earth, and probably had a faster rotation then as well, and was not yet tidally locked. So the big asteroid that smashed into the Moon may have come in at nearly any angle relative to the Earth, there would be no way to know with any certainty.

[RegulatorCountry]

My mistake, I should have written geosynchronous rotation, rather than geosynchronous orbit.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[Raymann]

Stupid article...why didn’t they just start it by saying we think we know what caused Mare Imbrium to form? No idea what the man in moons eye is.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 7/20/2016. Thanks fieldmarshaldj.

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[SunkenCiv]

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Why Do Lunar Satellites Eventually Crash Into The Moon? | Scott Manley | YouTube | Published on May 22, 2019