The moon's largest impact crater scattered something priceless-and Artemis may be heading straight into it

Key Points:

• A new study published in Science Advances refines details about the moon's South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin, the largest and oldest impact crater, suggesting the impactor struck from north to south at a shallow angle with a width of about 260 km.
• High-resolution 3D simulations indicate the SPA basin's elliptical tapering results from a differentiated impactor's dense core, with the impact velocity estimated around 13 km/s, implying the impactor likely originated from the Mars zone.
• The study reveals a "butterfly-like" ejecta pattern with lunar mantle material distributed mainly downrange and cross-range, supporting the possibility that NASA's Artemis III mission landing near the south rim of SPA could collect mantle samples.
• These findings contrast previous assumptions of a south-to-north impact trajectory, which would have left the Artemis landing site devoid of mantle ejecta, highlighting the study's importance for planning future lunar exploration.
• While the models provide significant insights, the study acknowledges limitations in resolution, and upcoming Artemis mission samples will be crucial to validate the predictions and improve understanding of the moon's history and mantle composition.