Astronomers have repeatedly noticed on the lunar surface the movement of large boulders. This phenomenon caused a lot of questions, but had no reliable explanation. One hypothesis was replaced by another, until scientists finally figured out what was the reason for the mysterious movements of the stones.

Photos of moving stones on the moon are very reminiscent of the movements of stones in the American desert Death Valley . As in the case of the desert, scientists for a long time could not understand the reason for such an unusual behavior of large pieces of rock. For decades, astronomers have compiled detailed maps of those places where the movements of stones on the lunar surface were recorded, and proposed various hypotheses of what is happening. The theory of lunar earthquakes was considered the most plausible, which explained the movement of stones by deep processes inside the satellite. But astrophysicists from Switzerland and Germany suggested that external forces also influence the movement of stones, more so than internal forces.

During this large-scale study, astronomers studied more than 2 million images of the moon, which were taken during the entire time of studying our satellite. Based on these data, a map of the surface of the Moon with the places of rockfalls plotted on it was compiled.

A detailed map, which was compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, made it possible to re-evaluate the scale of rockfalls and come closer to unraveling this phenomenon. Sometimes these were craters and steep slopes; in other cases, movements were observed in relatively flat terrain. In total, such strange cases, scientists counted more than 130 thousand! Moreover, among the moving stones dominated by objects with a diameter of 7-10 meters.

Scientists believe that the reason lies in external influences, in particular in collisions with asteroids. About 80% of all movements of boulders are associated with attacks of various asteroids, which provoke movements. Moreover, instability can be observed not only at the time of the collision, but also for a long time after it.

It turns out that an asteroid impact not only causes a concussion, but also sometimes provokes the formation of cracks on the surface of our satellite. These cracks, arising as a result of the impact, continue to expand, causing shaking of the surface of the moon and rockfalls. Of course, part of the boulders also moves under the influence of lunar earthquakes, but there are about 20% of the total number of moving stones.