MIT-Led Mission Reveals the Moon's Battered Crust Is Riddled With Cracks 39
A reader sends this quote from the Boston Globe:
"The moon's battered crust is riddled with deep fractures that may extend miles underground, according to the first findings from two NASA spacecraft orbiting Earth's nearest neighbor. The results of the mission, led by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist, surprised researchers, who said it will provide new insight into the evolution of the early solar system, and even help inform the search for life on Mars. Announced Wednesday, the discoveries are also a reminder that the familiar moon still holds secrets four decades after NASA ended its manned missions there. 'We have known that the moon's crust and other planetary crusts have been bombarded by impacts, but none of us could have predicted just how cracked the lunar crust is,' said Maria Zuber, the MIT geoscientist who led the mission, called GRAIL."
Here are the abstracts from the three studies published in Science.
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... and chairs at a geek conference
No plate tectonics. (Score:1)
Re:No plate tectonics. (Score:4, Insightful)
Still Tidally locked (Score:2, Interesting)
They're not cracks... (Score:1)
...they are underground chambers prepared by the alien overlords who have been watching us for millions of years. They'll be making their move on December 21, 2012 to mark the end of an era predicted by Mayan astronomers. Right before the end of the world, the aliens will scoop up their followers in a big rapture. They will hide them and feed them in the underground chambers of the moon away from the chaos on earth. Then the big Yahweh chief of all aliens will make his apparition, as written. He, he.
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Re:They're not cracks... (Score:4, Interesting)
The parent is of course, insane, but im afrade you're also inaccurate.
Dec 21st 2012 is the end of the 13th baktun and the beginning of the 14th baktun. This is important to the Mayans as they believed that we live in the 4th itteration of the planet earth. The first 3 failed, for various reasons, the longest being the third, which lasted 13 baktuns. The coming of the 14th baktun is important to them because it means this world will now be the longest running. Previous worlds were not well suited to life, and humans didn't appear untill this particular version. It's a sign that this world is good, pure, and running well. Makes me laugh every time I read something about the end of the world, they couldn't be further from the truth.
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Tidally locked means that the same side of the moon is always facing earth, not that it is locked a specific distance from the earth. We always only see one side of the planet.
If the earth were tidally locked with the sun we would always have one side of the earth facing the sun. Our day and year would be the same duration.
The tides on the moon would be from the sun and not from earth. The moon is not spinning relative to the earth, but it is still spinning relative to the sun.
- Toast
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If the earth were tidally locked with the sun we would always have one side of the earth facing the sun. Our day and year would be the same duration.
Really? If the same side of the Earth always faces the sun, does that not mean that the day never ends? Whereas the year is still the time the Earth takes to complete one orbit?
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Really? If the same side of the Earth always faces the sun, does that not mean that the day never ends? Whereas the year is still the time the Earth takes to complete one orbit?
Depends on your definition of day - his refers to one rotation about the Earth's axis, which is not realated to the length of the day-night cycle. See Day [wikipedia.org] for the various definitions.
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This was exactly the definition I was going with... one rotation around the body's rotational axis. However, my actual major typo was to refer to the moon as a planet:
the same side of the moon is always facing earth, not that it is locked a specific distance from the earth. We always only see one side of the planet.
Oops!
- Toast
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Tidally locked means that the same side of the moon is always facing earth, not that it is locked a specific distance from the earth. We always only see one side of the planet.
Yes, but that implies a fixed distance, since if the distance changes, suddenly you have a slow rotation relative to the central body that has to be "re-locked". And Moon is drifting away, isn't it? Additionally, if the orbit is elliptical, you still have changes in stress forces acting upon the lunar body, don't you? (Not to mention libration.)
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You are right to an extent. The moon is tidally locked with the earth. However, the Earth is not tidally locked to the moon (yet). There is no "suddenly" about this. Were the moon not tidally locked then it would freely rotate about its own axis as it moved away from us; and as the rotational speed got out of whack from the orbital speed we would get to see more than just the one side... as you were saying. However, what is actually happening is the Moon is slowing Earth's rotational speed towards tidally l
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The minute differences between the rates that these things happen at is "liberation" (where we get to see small slivers of the moon we wouldn't normally get to see)
No, it's not. Libration (note the spelling) implies a non-circular orbit and the matching between the mean angular velocity of Moon's rotation and the mean angular velocity of Moon's radius vector. The immediate velocities are perforce mismatched, since you can't slow down Moon's rotation by a significant percentage and speed it up again during a single lunar cycle The tidal forces can only match mean velocities. This has nothing to do with the continuous tidal re-locking.
The mission let kids select lunar pictures (Score:4, Informative)
This is obvious... (Score:1)
While cheese can keep for a long time if refrigerated properly,
the SPACE environment is too dry for its extended stay.
What do you expect from a piece of Swiss cheese (Score:2)
of several billion years.
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I thought it was green cheese. (I actually don't know what green cheese is.)
Re:What do you expect from a piece of Swiss cheese (Score:4, Informative)
Green cheese refers to fresh cheese (one that has not completely dried out). With cracks and battered crust, it apparently is not made of green cheese.
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Whoa there, you seem to have gotten your cheese colours mixed up. There's plenty of real green cheeses [wikipedia.org] which are fully capable of developing cracks in their crust. Take for instance Schabziger [wikipedia.org], a Swiss green cheese which is as hard as a rock and therefore usually eaten grated.
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I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
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The Siberian flats formed opposite Tierra Del Fuego. But considering that the Deccan flats formed opposite chixlub, the current theory has people guessing that there might have been an asteroid strike at Tierra Del Fuego.
However, the Smithsonian's lead paleoarchaeologist looked for evidence, and failed to find it. So that one is still out.
That said, I think there nonetheless WAS an asteroid strike there, travelling eastward, that formed both the Scotia Plate, and the African Karoo, which happens to have b
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So, just to be clear... (Score:2)
A "battered crust" is a rocky outer layer pelted by meteorites, and not the delicious outer layer of a corndog.
Really??? (Score:1)
Battered Crust (Score:1)
Future moon walkers had better be careful (Score:1)