Mysterious mass of lunar metal discovered under the lunar south pole



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Moon

The South-Aitken Pole Basin is represented by the shades of blue in this false-color image. The dotted circle indicates the location of the mass under the basin.

NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona

Scientists say that there is something unusual and metallic buried under the south pole of the moon. No, this is not a lost lunar Atlantis built by ancient aliens, but rather the rest of a colossal collision that has formed the largest crater in the solar system.

"Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's about the unexpected mass we've detected," said Peter B James, Assistant Professor of Planetary Geophysics at Baylor University.

A team of researchers led by James analyzed the gravity data for the moon from Mission GRAIL (NASA Gravity and Inland Recovery Laboratory) and compared it with the lunar topography of the lunar reconnaissance orbiter to find the surprising mass at hundreds of kilometers under the lunar basin of the South Aitken Pole.

The basin near the bottom of our only natural satellite is an oval crater several miles deep and up to 1,242 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide. If you wonder why you may have never seen it before, it is because it is on the other side of the moon.

"One of the explanations for this extra mass is that the metal of the asteroid that formed this crater is still encrusted in the mantle of the moon," says James, adding that the crater would have 4 billion dollars. 39 years, almost as old as the earth itself.

Another possible explanation is that the mass could be a product of the ancient ocean of moon magma that solidifies.

The research was published earlier this year in Geophysical Research Letters.


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We may not have to wait too long to break through some of the mysteries of the lunar back, like NASA hopes to send astronauts here 2024.

"We know that the South Pole region contains ice and could be rich in other resources, based on our observations in orbit," said Steven Clarke, NASA, in April.

Could there be enough resources for the South Pole to be transformed into a steel city in space? Probably not soon, but science fiction fans can dream.

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