'Unexpected' large mass of material 'five times larger than Hawaii' found under surface of the moon

A mysterious large mass of material “five times larger than Hawaii” has been found beneath the largest crater on the moon, a study has claimed.

The discovery was made under the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, and could contain metal from an asteroid that crashed into the moon.

According to a study by Baylor University, the large mass was found hundreds of miles underneath the basin.

Lead author of the study, Peter B James told Science Daily: “Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground.

“That’s roughly how much unexpected mass we detected.”

The crater where the material was found is several miles deep and huge in size.

It cannot be seen from Earth, though, because it is on the dark side of the moon.

Mr James said: “The dense mass -- whatever it is, wherever it came from -- is weighing the basin floor downward by more than half a mile.”

Scientists found the material after measuring subtle changes in the strength of gravity around the Moon.

Mr James added: “One of the explanations of this extra mass is the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the Moon's mantle."

He added: “We did the maths and showed that a sufficiently dispersed core of the asteroid that made the impact could remain suspended in the Moon's mantle until the present day, rather than sinking to the Moon's core.”

Other theories about the material include that it might be a concentration of dense oxides associated with the last stage of lunar magma ocean solidification.

Mr James called the basin "one of the best natural laboratories for studying catastrophic impact events, an ancient process that shaped all of the rocky planets and moons we see today."