https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scien...n-surface/
https://us.cnn.com/2019/06/11/us/moon-ma...index.html
EXCERPTS: Researchers have discovered something massive lurking underneath the far side of the moon [...] The structure, described in a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, sits at least 180 miles beneath the South Pole-Aitken basin—a colossal crater punched into the lunar landscape billions of years ago, when the moon's initially molten surface had cooled just enough for impacts to leave a lasting mark. (MORE)
[...] "Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected," author Peter B. James said in a release. The researchers from Baylor used various sets of data collected from space crafts that measure the gravity around the Moon, and compared them to maps and imaging of the Moon's surface. As a result, they found a dense metallic mass pulling down on the floor of the basin.
So, what is it? James and his team surmise it could be metal embedded in the Moon's mantle from the asteroid impact that caused the crater some estimated 4 billion years ago. If that's true, it could be a time machine -- and a gold mine -- for scientists studying the history of the universe. All of that metal, and basically the entire area surrounding the mass and the crater, could tell them a lot about how the asteroid impact happened and what the solar system was like when it did. (MORE)
https://us.cnn.com/2019/06/11/us/moon-ma...index.html
EXCERPTS: Researchers have discovered something massive lurking underneath the far side of the moon [...] The structure, described in a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, sits at least 180 miles beneath the South Pole-Aitken basin—a colossal crater punched into the lunar landscape billions of years ago, when the moon's initially molten surface had cooled just enough for impacts to leave a lasting mark. (MORE)
[...] "Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected," author Peter B. James said in a release. The researchers from Baylor used various sets of data collected from space crafts that measure the gravity around the Moon, and compared them to maps and imaging of the Moon's surface. As a result, they found a dense metallic mass pulling down on the floor of the basin.
So, what is it? James and his team surmise it could be metal embedded in the Moon's mantle from the asteroid impact that caused the crater some estimated 4 billion years ago. If that's true, it could be a time machine -- and a gold mine -- for scientists studying the history of the universe. All of that metal, and basically the entire area surrounding the mass and the crater, could tell them a lot about how the asteroid impact happened and what the solar system was like when it did. (MORE)