Two immense canyons on the moon’s far side that rival Earth’s Grand Canyon were produced by a cataclysmic collision nearly four billion years ago, according to new research published on Tuesday.
According to the findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, an asteroid or comet traveling at 35,000 miles per hour struck the moon near its south pole, carving out the vast structures in a matter of minutes.
“Nearly four billion years ago an asteroid or comet flew over the lunar south pole, brushed by the mountain summits of Malapert and Mouton, and hit the lunar surface,” David Kring, lead author of the new research, said in a statement.
The colossal force of the collision formed the 200-mile-wide Schrödinger impact basin and ejected high-energy streams of rock, which carved deep grooves into the lunar terrain.
Kring added, “The impact ejected high-energy streams of rock that carved two canyons that are the size of Earth’s Grand Canyon. While the Grand Canyon took millions of years to form, the two grand canyons on the Moon were carved in less than 10 minutes.”
The resulting features, named Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, were analyzed using images and elevation data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The study reveals that these canyons are between 12 and 17 miles wide, 1.7 to 2.2 miles deep and stretch for hundreds of miles.
The research was initiated in Houston, where second author Danielle Kallenborn began investigating the Schrödinger impact event during an undergraduate internship at USRA’s LPI. She later collaborated with impact cratering specialist Gareth Collins at Imperial College London.
“Analyzing the Schrödinger impact event showed me what a fascinating research target the Moon is,” Kallenborn said in the statement. “The lunar surface is like a timestamp of the early times of our solar system.”
Using ballistic calculations, the researchers determined that the ejected debris traveled at speeds of 2,237 miles per hour before impacting the surface again, forming the canyons.
“The Schrödinger crater is similar in many regards to the dino-killing Chicxulub crater on Earth,” Collins added. “By showing how Schrödinger’s kilometer-deep canyons were carved, this work has helped to illuminate how energetic the ejecta from these impacts can be.”
Staggeringly, the impact that created these lunar canyons released energy approximately 130 times greater than the total global nuclear arsenal.
Due to this immense force, most of the excavated rock was ejected away from the lunar south polar region, an area that NASA‘s Artemis astronauts are set to explore when humans return to the lunar surface.
With planned lunar missions set to send astronauts around the Moon next year, followed by a landing soon after, the discovery of these canyons offers an unprecedented opportunity to collect ancient geological samples.
These samples, sourced from otherwise inaccessible depths beneath the lunar surface, may provide valuable insights into the Moon’s—and the solar system’s—earliest history.
Beyond their scientific importance, the lunar canyons also possess a breathtaking beauty. As Kring noted, “The splendor of the canyons is so dramatic that if exposed on Earth, they would be national or international parks.”
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Reference
Kring, D. A., Kallenborn, D. P., & Collins, G. S. (2025). Grand canyons on the Moon. Nature Communications, 16(1), 1146. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55675-z
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