Scientists found that an asteroid impact carved two massive canyons on the moon in minutes. High-speed debris helped shape the trenches.

Two Grand Canyon-size features on the far side of the moon were likely formed in about 10 minutes after an unknown object slammed into the moon 3.8 billion years ago.

The gigantic cataclysm, which released energy 130 times more powerful than the detonation of the entire world’s atomic arsenal, will facilitate the research of astronauts scheduled for a lunar landing

The far side of the Moon has its own versions of the Grand Canyon—two of them, in fact! A new study explains how these deep canyons formed very quickly during an asteroid impact. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with local planetary scientist David Kring about the findings.

New research shows that when an asteroid slammed into the moon billions of years ago, it carved out a pair of grand canyons on the lunar far side.

The vast valleys of Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck demonstrate the incredible forces that shaped the face of the Moon.

The incoming object created an impact basin and sent streams of rocks hurtling like missiles, NASA said. Within minutes, two canyons comparable in size to Arizona's Grand Canyon were formed.

It didn’t take long for the moon to get its grand canyons. Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck are two long channels near the lunar south pole. The canyons, each more than 160 miles long and around two miles deep,

Two canyons on the far side of the moon, each as large as Earth's Grand Canyon, formed within less than 10 minutes, most likely due to a massive impact there 3.8bn years ago. The object and its work are the subjects of scientific speculation in the journal Nature Communications.