The Grand Canyon in Arizona is one of Earth's natural wonders, carved out over millions of years by the gradual erosion power of the Colorado River. Close to the moon's south pole are two canyons each comparable in size to the Grand Canyon that were born in a much different process.

New research shows that when an asteroid slammed into the moon billions of years ago, it carved out a pair of grand canyons on the lunar far side.

The Earth's Grand Canyon took millions of years to carve, but the moon's grand canyons took about ten minutes.

Two canyons that splay out from a vast asteroid crater on the moon may have been quickly formed by chains of impacts that followed the initial one