Produced by: Tarun Mishra
The Moon bears the scars of countless asteroid and meteor impacts, creating a rugged terrain dotted with thousands of craters.
Four years ago, scientists made a significant discovery beneath the Moon's largest crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest of its kind in the solar system.
Researchers from Baylor University identified a massive anomaly deep beneath the lunar surface, possibly composed of metal from an asteroid impact.
Described as being as large as a pile of metal five times the size of Hawaii, this anomaly poses intriguing questions about its origins and composition.
The South Pole-Aitken basin spans over 2,000 kilometres wide, deeper than several kilometres, and remains hidden from Earth's view on the Moon's far side.
Utilizing data from NASA's GRAIL mission and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists detected subtle gravitational changes around the Moon to pinpoint this mysterious mass.
The anomaly could potentially be remnants of an iron-nickel core from the impacting asteroid, dispersed into the Moon's mantle during the collision. An asteroid is reported to have collided with the Moon more than four billion years ago.
This discovery not only sheds light on the Moon's geological evolution over billions of years but also enhances our understanding of impact events that have shaped celestial bodies throughout the solar system.