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Help Map the Moon’s Molten Flows!
When asteroids hit the Moon, the impacts carve out craters and with enough energy and pressure, melt parts of the rocky surface. Often, the white hot, gooey melt (it’s like lava, except that it doesn’t erupt from underground) sloshes around the new crater and surrounding regions. The molten rock cools and hardens into vast rock features called impact melt flow deposits. These flow deposits are sculpture-like abstract art with beautiful lines and textures.
Now, scientists at the Lunar Melt citizen science project are asking for your help mapping these flows. You’ll be marking rocks, measuring the lengths of boulders, and outlining craters and melt deposits in images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
Your contributions will help reveal how impact melt has changed the Moon’s surface, especially around Little Lowell Crater and Tycho Crater, and help scientists use impact melt flows to learn about the moon’s interior.
Help planetary scientists map the geology of lava-like flows on the Moon! Sign up at mappers.psi.edu, and tell your friends!
