Moon’s crust ‘formed by massive impacts’

Large portions of the Moon’s crust was formed from massive impact events, according to new research.

The study, published in Nature Astronomy, overturns previous theories that colliding asteroids and comets were only a destructive process, with the lunar crust being created by magmas rising from the planet’s interior.

Having conducted new analysis of a sample collected by Nasa astronauts during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, a group of scientists have found that the rock contains evidence that it was formed at incredibly high temperatures.

This would have reached in excess of 2,300C which the scientists say could have been achieved by the melting of the outer layer in a very large impact event.