Scientists have FINALLY solved the mystery of why we can see a ‘man in the moon’

Scientists have claimed the right eye of the "man in the moon" was formed when a huge asteroid smashed into the lunar surface.

A team from Brown University teamed up with NASA to explore the origins of the Imbrium Basin, which forms the right hand peeper of the moon man's face.

They claimed an asteroid which was more than 150 miles wide crashed into the moon some 3.8 billion years ago. This space rock was so massive it was the size of a mini planet.

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We show that Imbrium was likely formed by an absolutely enormous object," said Pete Schultz, professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown University.

"This is the first estimate for the Imbrium impactor's size that is based largely on the geological features we see on the Moon."

It was previously thought that the asteroid was just 50 miles wide, which is still not the sort of thing you'd like to smash into Earth. The rock which is believed to have killed the dinosaurs was just six miles wide, meaning a larger one could essentially wipe out everything on the planet.

We don't see a lot of huge asteroids collisions nowadays, a fact that all humans should be very happy about.

It is believed the early solar system was packed full of massive asteroids which smashed into each other constantly.

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"The large basins we see on the Moon and elsewhere are the record of lost giants," Schultz added.

"The Moon still holds clues that can affect our interpretation of the entire solar system.

"Its scarred face can tell us quite a lot about what was happening in our neighborhood 3.8 billion years ago."