A giant plain on the nearside of the moon is bordered by ancient rift valleys that acted as a 'magma plumbing system' for the region's volcanoes billions of years ago, scientists say.
Researchers had thought that a rocky ridge around the 3,200km-wide plain, named the Ocean of Storms, was the edge of an enormous impact basin created when an asteroid crashed into the moon. But maps drawn up from measurements taken by Nasa's Grail mission orbiters found that the rocky features were lava-filled valleys that operated like a plumbing system.
0 comment(s):
Post a Comment