The history of the Moon , as happens with other bodies in the solar system, is full of scars. Scars that, contrary to what happens on Earth, can not be erased or eroded as a result of the atmosphere, liquid water or continental drift. One of the most important injuries suffered by the satellite is still visible from the planet. 4,000 million years ago, a rocky object hit the Moon generating a crater 1,250 km in diameter and several notches around this region, known as Mare Imbrium.
Studies had considered that the impact of a large asteroid could cause the formation of this basin, which is subsequently filled with basaltic rocks. However, a study published today in Nature has updated our knowledge about the origin of Mare Imbrium . The results could not be more striking: the body that hit the moon was larger than previously thought, with a diameter of 250 kilometers, when it was believed that their size did not reach the eighty kilometers
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Comparison trail left by the explosion caused by a experiment in the laboratory (top) and a computational model (below). . Credit: Peter Schultz, University of Brwon
In addition to triple its size, scientists at Brown University have confirmed through mathematical models and experiments in the laboratory that the size of the rocky object that hit the moon was half Vesta , one of the bodies found in the asteroid belt. “Such a large impact caused the dispersion of fragments in nearby areas of the Moon, something we already knew. In addition, its size and effect on the curvature of the surface allowed these pieces stay away and create the notches in the region. Some fragments joined rocks we collected during sampling of the Apollo mission, “he told Hipertextual Dr. Peter Schultz , first author of the study. Other pieces might even escape the lunar gravity, following a similar path to its original path, can return again and posteriorly collide with the satellite and other planets. According to the Dr. Jesus Martinez Frias , head of the Research Group of the CSIC of Meteorites and Planetary Geosciences Institute of Earth Sciences (CSIC-UCM) and director of the Spanish Network of Planetology and astrobiology (REDESPA), the work “is important because it focuses on a real impactogénico example and demonstrates the suitability of the correlations between analysis and field measurements with simulations being carried out in the laboratory, both computerized and other equipment on a small scale “. Although results do not provide enough information about the origin of this hypothetical gigantic protoplaneta , it does provide an important basis to study the importance and effect that could have the impact of similar shocks in both the Moon and other planets the solar system, including Earth. Our satellite, bombed for thousands of years by hundreds of rocky bodies, on its surface shows the scars of those “war wounds”. Craters of the Moon, which can be the size of a single currency or submit million kilometers, as in this case, serve to take us back in time and understand the dramatic and violent past that shook the solar system a little better. Also in the case of our planet, where she notes Martínez Frías, they have already identified 188 impact structures to date. With You, towards a new stage in the specialized journalism Become a 
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