An enormous impact basin located near the lunar south pole may have caused the Moon to roll over early in its history. The biggest, deepest impact crater in the solar system lies near the Moon's south pole. It is 2500 kilometres wide and 12 kilometres deep and is thought to have been created about 4 billion years ago. It is believed that the impact probably occurred near the Moon's equator. That is because the equator lies in the plane of most other objects in the solar system. The giant hole destabilised the Moon, so that within 100,000 to 1 million years of forming, the basin – a region of low mass – had rolled over to the south pole.
Submitted by Shaun A. Saunders
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