Scientists discover two 'young' craters in Moon's darkest regions

New York: A team of scientists has discovered two geologically young craters – one 16 million years old and the other between 75-420 million years – in the Moon’s darkest regions. “These ‘young’ impact craters are a really exciting discovery," said senior research scientist D Kathleen Mandt from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas. [caption id=“attachment_2796596” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The ‘young’ craters are 16 million- and between 75 and 420 million years old. PTI[/caption] Finding geologically young craters and honing in on their age helps us understand the collision history in the solar system, she added. Collisions in space have played an important role in the formation of the solar system, including the formation of the Moon. Impact craters tell the history of collisions between objects in the solar system. Because the Moon has been peppered with impacts, its surface serves as a record of its past. Using a new method, the scientists determined that the areas around the two craters were brighter and rougher than the surrounding landscape. “Discovering these two craters and a new way to detect young craters in the most mysterious regions of the Moon is particularly exciting," the authors stated in a paper published in the journal Icarus. This method will be useful not only on the Moon but also on other interesting bodies, including Mercury, the dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroid Vesta.