Fun Facts with Angus Burns: The famous crater known as Copernicus
The resulting material is then ejected to form the 'ejecta rays', and the crater is formed by the hole left behind.
Looking at the moon through a telescope or camera lens reveals that its surface is covered with circular shapes, many of which have lines extending outward from them.
The circular shapes are craters, and the lines are known as ‘ejecta rays’, but how do these craters and lines form on the moon?
Simply put, they are the result of comets, meteors, and asteroids colliding with the moon and causing the ground to be smashed or pulverized.
The resulting material is then ejected to form the ‘ejecta rays’, and the crater is formed by the hole left behind.
Some of the moon’s craters are enormous.
The famous Copernicus crater can be seen in this image (captured from Newcastle with a Celestron 9.25″ Edge HD telescope).
It is 93 kilometers in diameter and 3.8 kilometers deep, and it is thought to have formed 800 million years ago as a result of an asteroid impact.
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