Russian scientists found that meteorite bombardments became the leading factor in the formation of the lunar relief. At the same time, daily temperature changes on the Moon played virtually no role.
Scientists looked at images of the shadowed floor of the south polar crater Shoemaker obtained from the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Experts built a digital model and, on its basis, compared the surface relief of Shoemaker with the terrain in two regularly illuminated areas of the Moon - the area of operation of the Soviet Lunokhod-2 spacecraft and the landing site of the American Apollo 16 mission.