article_snippet: For that, the researchers turned to the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range.
article_snippet: The 14-foot canon simulates celestial impacts by firing projectiles at up to 16,000 miles per hour.
article_snippet: Projectiles were fired into a material that mimics lunar basalt, the rock that makes up the dark patches on the nearside of the Moon. '
article_snippet: We used the lunar basalt model because We wanted to start with something dark already and see if We could darken the lunar basalt model further,' said Schultz.