Â鶹ÊÓƵAV

The left eye of the 'Man in the Moon', the Mare Imbrium crater, was created around 3.8 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid more than 240 km across. Using a four metre diameter cannon, that fires small projectiles at up to 26,000 km per hour, Professor Peter Schultz at Brown University, has estimated the main features of the asteroid and has concluded that proto-planet-sized asteroids may have been common in the early solar system.

(Photo: ‘The Man in the Moon’ - open eye is Mare Imbrium crater. Credit: Â鶹ÊÓƵAV)