• Question: why are there dents in the moon

    Asked by wear1jete on 18 Sep 2025.
    • Photo: Sandra Raimundo

      Sandra Raimundo answered on 18 Sep 2025:

      The dents in the Moon are called craters, they were caused by smaller rocks hitting the Moon. Most of the craters in the Moon were formed more than a billion years ago when the Solar System was very young

    • Photo: Emily Walls

      Emily Walls answered on 18 Sep 2025:

      Asteroids or smaller rocks hitting the moon cause dents! We have some evidence of this on earth too, like the ones that killed the dinosaurs.

    • Photo: David Taylor

      David Taylor answered on 19 Sep 2025:

      For an interesting follow up, you can look up pictures of the far side of the moon (we only ever see one side of the moon from Earth since it’s ‘tidally locked’ to us), which has many more craters than the near side

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 22 Sep 2025:

      The dents are craters formed by the impact of rocks of the surface of the Moon. As there are no volcanoes on the Moon, the surface isn’t refreshed regularly and the dents stay there. You can actually see craters on Earth too as we are occasionally hit by big enough rocks to make dents!

Comments

  • Photo: Martin McMahon

    Martin McMahon commented on :

    Try dropping some large stones into a smoothed sandpit. When you carefully pick up the stones, you’ll see that impact craters are left behind. That’s how the dents are formed on the moon.