NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
AI is looking skyward. An artificial intelligence algorithm has learned to identify craters on the moon, discovering thousands of new ones in the process.
Craters are geological fingerprints left behind by impacting space debris, such as comets or asteroids. Tectonic activity and weathering have wiped most of the Earth’s surface craters clean, but the moon is still covered in them—many of which date back billions of years. Even from afar, the size distribution and number of craters can be used to …