Study: Why the Moon's Far Side Looks So Different 79
StartsWithABang writes 55 years ago, the Soviet probe Luna 3 imaged the side of the Moon that faces away from us for the first time. Surprisingly, there were only two very small maria (dark regions) and large amounts of mountainous terrain, in stark contrast to the side that faces us. This remained a mystery for a very long time, even after we developed the giant impact hypothesis to explain the origin of the Moon. But a new study finally appears to solve the mystery, crediting the heat generated on the near side from a hot, young Earth with creating the differences between the two hemispheres.
Re:Thought Gene Shoemaker figured this out... (Score:5, Informative)
No, the article itself mentions the impact difference between the two sides should be less than 1%.
The near side had much more surface in a liquid state during and after many of the impacts. The article claims heat from the Earth was the cause.
Re:Thought Gene Shoemaker figured this out... (Score:5, Informative)
Earth is 12,742 km in diameter. The moon is 363,104 km, 28.5 diameters, away at perigee, and 405,696 km, 31.8 diameters, at apogee.
In round numbers the moon is 30 Earth diameters away.