Now, scientists believe that they have figured it out. Two huge canyons scored into the surface of the Moon were created in the wake of a giant impact – and, in stark and jaw-dropping contrast to the Grand Canyon, their creation could have taken less than 10 minutes.

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. That's good news for scientists and NASA, which is looking to land astronauts at the south pole on the near,

"When the impacting asteroid or comet hit the lunar surface, it excavated a tremendous volume of rock that was launched into space above the lunar surface before it came crashing