eCosmology

pictures of moons, strange drag marks on surface?

sometimes when I look at satelite pictures of certain moons in our solar system I see that there are these strange features on the surface that look as if someone dragged something across the surface, these things are on very large scale and I always wondered what they were. Here is the best example I could find online.. although I used to have a book where it was way more apparent. What are the drag marks caused by? http://wanderingspace.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/miranda.jpg

Public Comments

1. nasa.com
2. mother nature can do some crazy things, it could just be the wind or even another life form.
3. stretch marks?
4. um... i don't know either
5. damage from large asteroids and debris literally crashing and dragging along the surface over millions of years
6. perhaps cause by apollo landing anyway its a hoax,alien marking that amy answer
7. I'm not exactly sure,but I think they might be cracks on the surface of the moon,which were caused by collisions or meteors.It could also be caused due to dust storms.
8. They aren't drag marks, they're pictures which have been kindly drawn for us by our alien friends. If you look carefully you can see a head and arms th the top left of the L shape, it looks something like a human being dragged through a mincer, isn't that nice of them.
9. It is believed that the moon you are showing here MIRADA was struck by something big enough to break it apart and it had enough mass to pull it back together,,,, There are many many unexplained things in our solar system and the thing your asking about is one of them, Most likely cause is geological activity in the past and meteor strikes on many of these bodys,,, you can read about Miranda here; http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/target/Miranda SG
10. that marks r known as "maria' and according 2 me it is caused by astronents or meteors or if u want more information u can go to www.scienceresearch.com happy new year dude/////........................
11. tectonic shifting and maybe ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift they are called Coronae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_(moon)
12. hmmm
13. aaaaaaaaaaaalllllliiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnsssssss
14. just valleys, features of differing depths. good choice of picture by yous. drag marks on my moon are caused by another's hands
15. It is possible that millions of years ago they were hit by asteroids etc but only scraped it and then flew off. On our moon, the craters were formed millions of years ago by MASSIVE meteorites miles wide. Also when the moons were being formed they could have knocked into objects etc. Watch a series called "The Universe" It answers a lot of questions. Hope this helped
16. The craters are from asteroid impacts. The gouge at the bottom looks like erosion from water movement. The marks on right side could be lava flow.
17. It depends on which body it is, That photo is Uranus's moon Miranda. It's believed that it got blown apart by a collision, re-formed, and froze before the heat and pressure smoothed out the molten rock. Others have different explanations. It's getting late here, so my suggestion is to read the caption of a picture you're looking at, find out what the name of the satellite is, and do a Google on it to find it's story.
18. The Moon (Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite, and is the fifth largest one in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, which is about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon has a diameter of 3,474 km[8]—slightly more than a quarter that of the Earth and slightly smaller than the east–west distance across the United States. This means that the volume of the Moon is about 2 percent that of Earth. The gravitational pull at its surface is about 17 percent of the Earth's. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days, and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases that repeat every 29.5 days. The Moon is the only celestial body to which humans have travelled and upon which humans have landed. The first artificial object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first artificial object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9, and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966.[8] The United States (U.S.) Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, resulting in six landings between 1969 and 1972. Human exploration of the Moon ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although several countries have announced plans to send people or robotic spacecraft to the Moon.
19. they are craters for heavens sake!! C.R.A.T.E.R.S!! Large holes formed millions of years ago!! some of them are very huge and whole of britain can fit into one huge crater!
20. They are caused by the gravity of their planets pulling at them as they rotate. (Later) Actually, this is the kind of thing i thought you meant: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/phobos_vik1_big.jpg The picture you show is of Miranda. Those streaks are faults, caused probably by alternating tidal heating and cooling.
21. That's Miranda; it's thought that Miranda was impacted by a huge asteroid, and it broke into several parts; Then, over the years, those parts came back together under it's own gravity, like mis-matched pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Those marks are faults from where one ill-fitting piece went next to another, and was filled by debris.
22. it happen by meteors.when meteors strike on their surface it create big hole like pond. in earth thee are few lakes made by meteores.