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55-Year-Old Dark Side Of The Moon Mystery Solved
The “man in the moon” appeared when meteoroids struck the Earth-facing side of the moon creating large flat seas of basalt that we see as dark areas called maria. But no “face” exists on farside of the moon and now, Penn State astrophysicists think they know why.
“I remember the first time I saw a globe of the moon as a boy, being struck by how different the farside looks,” said Jason Wright, assistant professor of astrophysics. “It was all mountains and craters. Where were the maria? It turns out it’s been a mystery since the fifties.”
Composite image of the lunar farside taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in June 2009, note the absence of dark areas.
Image: NASA
This mystery is called the Lunar Farside Highlands Problem and dates back to 1959, when the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 transmitted the first images of the dark side of the moon back to Earth. It was called the dark side because it was unknown, not because sunlight does not reach it. Researchers immediately noticed that fewer “seas” or maria existed on this portion of the moon that always faces away from Earth.
Wright, Steinn Sigurdsson, professor of astrophysics and Arpita Roy,graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics, and lead author of the study, realized that the absence of maria, which is due to a difference in crustal thickness between the side of the moon we see and the hidden side, is a consequence of how the moon originally formed. The researchers report their results in today’s (June 9) Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The general consensus on the moon’s origin is that it probably formed shortly after the Earth and was the result of a Mars-sized object hitting Earth with a glancing, but devastating impact. This Giant Impact Hypothesis suggests that the outer layers of the Earth and the object were flung into space and eventually formed the moon.
“Shortly after the giant impact, the Earth and the moon were very hot,” said Sigurdsson.
The Earth and the impact object did not just melt; parts of them vaporized, creating a disk of rock, magma and vapor around the Earth.
“The moon and Earth loomed large in each others skies when they formed, ” said Roy.
The geometry was similar to the rocky exoplanets recently discovered very close to their stars, said Wright. The moon was 10 to 20 times closer to Earth than it is now, and the researchers found that it quickly assumed a tidally locked position with the rotation time of the moon equal to the orbital period of the moon around the Earth. The same real estate on the moon has probably always faced the Earth ever since. Tidal locking is a product of the gravity of both objects.
The moon, being much smaller than Earth cooled more quickly. Because the Earth and the moon were tidally locked from the beginning, the still hot Earth — more than 2500 degrees Celsius — radiated towards the near side of the moon. The far side, away from the boiling Earth, slowly cooled, while the Earth-facing side was kept molten creating a temperature gradient between the two halves.
This gradient was important for crustal formation on the moon. The moon’s crust has high concentrations of aluminum and calcium, elements that are very hard to vaporize.
“When rock vapor starts to cool, the very first elements that snow out are aluminum and calcium,” said Sigurdsson.
Aluminum and calcium would have preferentially condensed in the atmosphere of the cold side of the moon because the nearside was still too hot. Thousands to millions of years later, these elements combined with silicates in the moon’s mantle to form plagioclase feldspars, which eventually moved to the surface and formed the moon’s crust, said Roy. The farside crust had more of these minerals and is thicker.
Contacts and sources:
By A’ndrea Elyse Messer
Penn State University
Citation: Earthshine on a Young Moon: Explaining the Lunar Farside Highlands. Arpita Roy et al. Astrophysical Journal Letters., June 2014 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/788/2/L42
Source:
There is ONLY ONE WAY, and that is through Jesus Christ. Please accept Christ into your heart and repent of your sins. Admit that you are a sinner and do everything you have within yourself to turn away from those sins. Jesus will not let you go once you give yourself to him. He sacrificed himself for ALL of us. Of course its not always easy because we battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities. Accecpt the way of the light, grow your faith in Christ, stand in your faith. These are the last days and WE MUST FIGHT FOR OUR SOULS! Love you ALL! GOD bless and may he have favor with us all!
There goes some one that is limiting God’s power by saying there is only one way to God, when in fact if God is of unlimited potential and mind then also there should be unlimited ways to God. My understanding of the Devil is a being that wants to limits Gods power so this messaged must be from the devil.
There is no seperation between God and the Universe, Between Religion and Science, God is the Universe..so they look for the “God Particle” with a new Super Collider.
Let us define God! GOD THE FATHER IN HEAVEN! I AM! ALPHA AND OMEGA! ALL OTHER gods ARE OF THE DEVIL. THE DEVIL IS THE GREATEST DECEIVER OF ALL TIME!!!
YAHSHUA IS THE ONLY WAY TO PARADISE (I.E. HEAVEN!)
FOR THOSE NOT CONNECTED SPIRITUALLY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF “I AM” THEN YOU ARE LEFT IN DARKNESS THROUGHOUT YOUR HUMAN LIFE. YOU ARE OF THIS WORLD RAN BY SATAN HIMSELF.
FOR THOSE WHOM SAY THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO “I AM” THEN YOU ARE BEING DECEIVED BY THE DEVIL. WE BELIEVERS PRAY FOR YOU ALL!
BLESSINGS!
http://Www.newmessage.org
whats that got to do with the moon mate ?
Thanks Alton, another interesting article
Meteoroids create craters not large flat seas. Any meteors heading toward the earth facing side would hit the earth first. That’s why the far side is more cratered. All planets expand as they age and their angular velocity slows. The moons seas are a result of that expansion and this explains the difference in crustal thickness. Check out Neal Adams youtube videos on the growing earth theory. He shows how the continents fit together perfectly on a smaller sized earth, really cool.
Interesting piece.
Thanks for the interesting story!
Interesting information. Just add plasma connections and big bolts of “electricity” zapping out of the VOID…
NASA, that have been Smudging, Altering, Colorizing, Blurring and Deleting Photo’s and Video from the Start, was only created for one purpose..to Hide the Truth.
Maybe NASA should have just bought a 80.00 telescope and 70.00 dollar camera like this guy and from the Ground can give me better Video then that billion dollar Hubble or the Russians.
Or maybe the Moon isn’t 250,000 miles away and 1/4 of the size of Earth, maybe its less then 50 miles away and 100 miles wide and made of Titanium and is a Construct..NASA, SHAME ON YOU !
After the 6 minute mark he realizes the zoom from his 70.00 camera is not all the way out.
http://youtu.be/tqVDNSrKRFI
Or maybe the Moon is in your backyard Sean!
I won’t believe anything that comes from NASA. You are right, they are famous for erasing the good stuff off of their photos.
I’m sure everyone’s tired of hearing about The Blue Planet Project Book, but it reveals exactly what the government has been covering up and lying about in the past.
http://www.blue-planet-project.com/
There always seems to be religious nutters around who wouldn’t recognize God if he handed them a Bible. <:o)
“55-Year-Old Dark Side Of The Moon Mystery Solved” Is the answer Chris Creeps?
I swear that fat dolt is about 55 and decomposing fast as we speak.