The Moon has fascinated humanity for millennia, its silvery glow lighting our night skies and its rugged surface visible even to the naked eye. While telescopes have long unveiled the Moon’s surface details, recent high-resolution imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken our understanding of lunar phenomena to an entirely new level. Since 2009, the LRO has been silently circling the Moon, capturing astonishing 4K images that reveal surprising insights into the Moon’s geology, history, and ongoing processes. Let’s explore some of these lunar enigmas freshly illuminated by LRO’s watchful eye.

Concentric Craters: The Moon’s “Donuts”

At first glance, many craters on the Moon look straightforward — simple circular depressions caused by impacts. But among them lie odd concentric craters, often nicknamed “donuts” due to their ringed shapes. These craters feature multiple circular rims nested within each other, deviating from the typical impact crater form.

One might suspect that concentric craters result from two meteors striking in close succession or coincidence. Yet, LRO data shows these craters cluster predominantly around specific lunar regions — particularly the edge of Oceanus Procellarum, the Moon’s vast western mare. Moreover, concentric craters tend to be of similar ages and are shallower than expected compared to other craters of their size.

Scientists propose two main theories to explain this. One suggests that some impacts occurred when the lunar surface in that region was semi-liquid, perhaps akin to cooled lava or thick honey, enabling ripples from the impact to freeze into place as the surface solidified. However, broader geological understanding points toward volcanic activity influencing these crater formations. Magma pressing and slowly uplifting the ground beneath a crater after impact could push the surface upward, resulting in concentric rings.

While the precise causes remain uncertain, this uniquely clustered crater type hints at a Moon that was once more geologically dynamic than its seemingly inert present suggests.

Surfacing Changes: Landslides on a “Dead” Moon

Many imagine the Moon’s surface as unchanging, except for the occasional meteor strike. But LRO’s detailed images reveal signs of subtle ongoing surface processes. At the rim of Kepler Crater, a 32-kilometer-wide impact basin, the edges show evidence of landslides — streaks of darker material cascading down steep crater walls.

Zoomed-in views highlight that these landslides consist of fine dust and debris gradually breaking loose, likely triggered by tiny meteoroid impacts that shake loose material over time. The landslides appear as numerous individual streaks rather than a single massive slide, suggesting that the process occurs intermittently, rounding off the crater’s sharp edges over millennia. This slow surface evolution challenges the notion that the Moon is entirely static and showcases the delicate balance between ancient formations and ongoing micro-activity.

Strange Shapes and Low-Angle Impacts: The Case of Messier Crater

Craters are often portrayed as circular due to the explosive nature of impacts, but Messier Crater stands out with an elongated shape and an unusual slit-like floor, defying the norm.

The surrounding crater field reveals the mystery: nearby, two other craters sit in proximity, seemingly of different ages. The key to solving this puzzle lies in the distinctive debris rays streaking outward in specific directions from these craters.

Such directional debris patterns indicate the impactor struck the lunar surface at a very low angle—less than 15 degrees—shearing and ricocheting to create elongated craters and focused ejecta rays. Furthermore, the impacting body probably fragmented into at least three parts before the collision. Intriguingly, ejecta from the newer craters has overlaid the older one, giving a skewed sense of relative age.

Additional features like solidified pools of impact melt and caved-in areas within the crater add to Messier’s geological intrigue, revealing violent events frozen in time.

Mountains and Impact Dynamics: Craters on the Edge of Peaks

Another captivating phenomenon emerges when impacts occur on uneven terrain. One crater captured by the LRO appears asymmetrical not because of multiple impacts but because it formed right on the edge of a towering lunar peak.

Topographic mapping shows an 8-kilometer elevation difference within just 20 kilometers — like having the equivalent of Everest adjacent to a deep valley. When an asteroid strikes such a steep slope, the resulting crater shape distorts, influenced both by the approach angle and uneven surface.

This offers a vivid glimpse into how lunar landscapes shape impact features and reminds us of the Moon’s diverse and complex topography.

Lunar North Pole Peaks: Illuminated Havens for Future Colonies

While the vast majority of the Moon’s surface undergoes long, 14-day lunar nights, certain peaks near the poles bask almost continuously in sunlight. An image captured near the north pole shows one such peak on the rim of Aepinus crater.

These “peaks of eternal light” are critically important for lunar exploration and future colonies. They provide a consistent solar energy source, essential because long lunar nights hinder solar power generation elsewhere. Adjacent permanently shadowed craters serve as cold traps harboring water ice deposits — an invaluable resource for drinking, life support, fuel production, and agriculture.

The interplay of light and shadow zones at the poles positions these rugged terrains as prime real estate for humanity’s next step off Earth.

Hidden Peaks on the Moon’s Far Side: Islands in the Dark

On the Moon’s far side, further mysteries reside in craters like Bhabha, where high central peaks rise within otherwise deep basins. These complex craters showcase that even on the side unseen from Earth, lunar geology holds surprises.

The LRO’s high-resolution mapping assists with understanding such formations and lays a foundation for future missions venturing to these remote lunar domains.

Through the lens of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s powerful cameras, our nearest celestial neighbor reveals itself as a surprisingly dynamic world with a history written in rock, ice, and dust. From enigmatic crater structures and subtle landslides to the promise held by sunlit polar peaks, the Moon offers endless phenomena to unravel.

As exploration and technology progress, continuous observation will doubtlessly uncover more secrets, inspiring new generations of lunar scientists and explorers.

What lunar mysteries fascinate you most? And what would you like to see unveiled in future lunar explorations? The Moon is waiting to share its stories — we just need to keep looking.

Credits: Inspired by insights from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s latest imagery and analysis.