Interior of the Near Side Megabasin of the Moon

Introduction: The irregular shape of the Moon may be explained in detail by assuming that a single large impact struck the near side of the Moon and deposited its ejecta on the far side [4], [5], [8], [9]. The impactor would have been very large in order to deposit the 5 kilometer bulge on the far side, perhaps 300 to 600 kilometers in diameter, and the internal basin would have covered more than half the Moon [2]. Analysis of elevation data from the Clementine LIDAR instrument [10], together with a model of lunar impact basins and scaling laws, led to determining the parameters of the Near Side Megabasin (NSM) shown in Table 1.