'Big splat' may explain moon's mountainous far side
The mountainous region on the far side of the moon, known as the lunar farside highlands, may be the solid remains of a collision with a smaller companion moon, according to a study by planetary scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The striking differences between the near and far sides of the moon have been a longstanding puzzle. The near side is relatively low and flat, while the topography of the far side is high and mountainous, with a much thicker crust. The study, published in the August 4 2011 issue of Nature, builds on the "giant impact" model for the origin of the moon, in which a Mars-sized object collided with Earth early in the history of the solar system and ejected debris that coalesced to form the moon.
The study suggests that this giant impact also created another, smaller body, initially sharing an orbit with the moon, that eventually fell back onto the moon and coated one side with an extra layer of solid crust tens of kilometers thick.
Source and further reading:
http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/08/big-splat.html
Image: was taken by the Soviet Union’s Zond 8 spacecraft to observe and study the side of the moon that cannot be seen from Earth.
More about Zond program:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_program
More about the far side of the moon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon
It would have been neat to have two moons...
ReplyDeleteAnd rings =)
ReplyDeleteWe're making our own rings!
ReplyDeleteVery slowly...
If we had more than one moon it would fascinating sight in the sky... Multiple moon rise and set, different parts of the world would have moon to their own :)
ReplyDeleteMultiple eclipses, if they were anything like similar-sized they'd influence each other's orbits and not be the regular 28 day cycle we have, multiple tides including more frequent spring and neap tides, two space races, possibly much more difficulty in calculating and maintaining satellite orbits... it would be interesting.
ReplyDelete