DesertFox
04-14-2006, 11:20 PM
Planetary scientists from The Ohio State University in Columbus have found the remains of ancient lunar impacts that occurred some 4 billion years ago that may have helped create the surface feature commonly called the "man in the moon."
This OSU study suggests that a large object hit the far side of the moon and sent a shock wave through the moon's core and all the way to the Earth-facing side. The crust recoiled--and the moon still bears the scars from that encounter today. The finding holds implications for lunar prospecting and may even solve a mystery about how past impacts on Earth affect its geology today.
The early Apollo missions revealed that the moon isn't perfectly spherical. Its surface is warped in two spots; an earth-facing bulge on the near side is complemented by a large depression on the Moon's far side. Scientists have long wondered whether these surface features were caused by Earth's gravity tugging on the moon early in its existence when its surface was still molten and malleable. But study leaders Laramie Potts and Ralph von Frese say these features are instead remnants from ancient impacts. They came to this conclusion after mapping the moon's interior through gravity fluctuations measured by NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector satellites to map the moon's interior.
More (http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?floc=ns-tos-feat-b-01&name=fte/manonthemoon/manonthemoon)
This OSU study suggests that a large object hit the far side of the moon and sent a shock wave through the moon's core and all the way to the Earth-facing side. The crust recoiled--and the moon still bears the scars from that encounter today. The finding holds implications for lunar prospecting and may even solve a mystery about how past impacts on Earth affect its geology today.
The early Apollo missions revealed that the moon isn't perfectly spherical. Its surface is warped in two spots; an earth-facing bulge on the near side is complemented by a large depression on the Moon's far side. Scientists have long wondered whether these surface features were caused by Earth's gravity tugging on the moon early in its existence when its surface was still molten and malleable. But study leaders Laramie Potts and Ralph von Frese say these features are instead remnants from ancient impacts. They came to this conclusion after mapping the moon's interior through gravity fluctuations measured by NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector satellites to map the moon's interior.
More (http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?floc=ns-tos-feat-b-01&name=fte/manonthemoon/manonthemoon)