ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Apollo (crater)

Okay kiddo, so let's talk about Apollo crater. It's actually named after the Greek god Apollo. Do you remember learning about Apollo and his special powers in school? No? Okay, nevermind, that's a story for another day.

So, Apollo crater is a big hole on the surface of the moon. It's really big, much bigger than you can imagine – it's about 538 km wide! That's like driving all the way from one side of our city to the other side! The crater is located on the southern hemisphere of the moon and it's surrounded by some other craters too.

Now, do you know how the moon was created? It's a pretty cool story. Scientists believe that a long, long time ago, our earth somehow collided with another space rock called Theia. This collision caused a giant explosion and debris from this explosion formed together to create the moon. Isn't that amazing?

So when something hits a planet or a moon really hard, it can leave behind a big hole like a crater. That's what happened to the moon when it formed. The Apollo crater was made by a meteorite (a space rock) that hit the moon billions of years ago, when it was just a baby moon. Can you imagine how big that space rock must have been to make such a huge hole?

Scientists have studied the Apollo crater a lot, and they've found some interesting things there. They've found rocks called breccias that were formed from the impact of the meteorite. They've also found minerals that might be really helpful for us humans someday, if we ever get to live on the moon!

So there you have it, kiddo – a big hole on the moon called the Apollo crater that was made by a huge space rock a very long time ago. Pretty cool, right?