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Moon Science

Hotspot Found On Moon's Far Side 96

Posted by Soulskill from the thermal-exhaust-port dept.
derGoldstein tips this news from Discovery.com: "Scientists have found evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon. The new discovery, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience (abstract) is a rare example of volcanism on the lunar surface not associated with asteroid, meteor or comet impact events. ... They focused on an area containing numerous domes, some more than six kilometers high. The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, 'volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava.'"
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Hotspot Found On Moon's Far Side More

Hotspot Found On Moon's Far Side

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  • Submission completed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dtmos ( 447842 ) * on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:48PM (#36877084)

    The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, 'volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava'. . .

    . . . 800 million years ago. While undeniably still an interesting and intriguing find, it was a hotspot, um, a while back.

    • Re:Submission completed (Score:4)

      by derGoldstein ( 1494129 ) on Monday July 25, 2011 @06:10PM (#36877386) Homepage
      The history of the moon is a subject that keeps being revised and researched. If you asked 20 years ago: "What is the Moon's origin?", it's likely that you'd be told it was a planet that got caught in Earth's gravity, because using the information they had then, it was the most likely theory. Now the Giant Impact Hypothesis [wikipedia.org] is favored. And water on the moon [bbc.co.uk]? Just a few years ago that would be a joke. Any new information helps.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The "water on the Moon" theory has been around for a long while, actually--Clementine [wikipedia.org] first provided evidence for it back in 1994, and it's been current in a fair amount of space development talk since then. The big news in recent years is proof that the hypothesized water ice is actually there. Similarly, the Giant Impact hypothesis was actually developed in the mid '70s (from the article you linked), and has been current since the mid '80s or so. Of course, it can take a while for that to trickle down.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Thing 1 ( 178996 )
          Exactly. It's Futurama's claims [youtube.com] of whalers on the moon that I suspect. (Impact hypothesis, from the wiki page, was originally proposed in 1946.)

          • Exactly. It's Futurama's claims [youtube.com] of whalers on the moon that I suspect. (Impact hypothesis, from the wiki page, was originally proposed in 1946.)

            What, you think that just because there aint no whales, there can't be whalers on the moon?

    • . . . 800 million years ago. While undeniably still an interesting and intriguing find, it was a hotspot, um, a while back.

      That fits with some of the complaints that /. is running more and more old stories..

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xmundt ( 415364 )

      greetings and salutations....
      800 million years is only a slight tick of the clock in geological terms....Now. on my part, I saw the headline and before I expanded the article and saw it was about volcanoes.... I found myself wondering if it was open, used WEP (almost open) or WPA(2) for security, and, if I put a Yagi on my systerm, or hooked it up to a big dish (I have a spare 8' one kicking around), could I get a decent signal? I kind of figured it had to be faster than Verizon's air card these days.

      • Maybe in astronomical terms 800 million years isn't a long time, but geologically it's still quite a while. The Earth looked quite different 800 million years ago.

    • ... it was still new back when NASA began planning a mission to go study it.

  • Hotspot Found on Moon's Far Side (Score:5, Funny)

    by tomcode ( 261182 ) on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:50PM (#36877130)

    The bad news: You need an AT&T account to use it.

  • Boo... (Score:2)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    I thought you were going to tell me about a new Starbucks for the Decepticons...

  • That's all I can say.

  • It's a black monolith (Score:3)

    by Megahard ( 1053072 ) on Monday July 25, 2011 @05:58PM (#36877228)
    Buried on the far side. Dimensions 1:4:9.

    • No I think that's where Superman buried Nuclear Man at the end of Superman IV

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Turn in your geek card.

      The monolith was in Tycho, which is on Nearside, not Farside.

      • Where can I get a geek card? I keep asking, but nobody ever listens to me...

      • Turn in your geek card.

        The monolith was in Tycho, which is on Nearside, not Farside.

        Maybe Clarke was wrong on this little detail.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rhook ( 943951 )

      The actual dimensions of a black monolith are "however big it needs to be". 1:4:9 is just the ratio of the proportions.

  • Where there is a hotspot there is a starbucks.

    The rates are exceptionally well.

    I hope you recognized star....

    • Where there is a hotspot there is a starbucks.

      The rates are exceptionally well.

      It's not a very good location, though. Seating's cramped and awkward, the baristas are always kind of unpleasant, there's not much of a view - the place just has no atmosphere.

      This joke is just one of the many wonderful innovations brought to us by the Apollo program.

  • $32 for the results of public funded research (Score:3)

    by anwyn ( 266338 ) on Monday July 25, 2011 @06:11PM (#36877398)
    This information was mostly created by NASA. The Authors mostly have jobs at Universities. So why does a member of the public have to pay $32 to read this paper?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hoytak ( 1148181 )

      Not quite the same thing, but closer: http://meteorites.wustl.edu/abstracts/lpsc42/a_l11j02.pdf [wustl.edu]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wrook ( 134116 )

      Probably a rhetorical question, but basically the publisher charges for organizing the peer review, editing and distribution. One of the primary goals of creating the WWW was to allow researchers to distribute their work without having to be at the mercy of the journal publishers. But even though a lot of papers are available for free on the web, the prestige factor still prompts a lot (most?) researchers to go through the old channels. As I'm sure you're aware, they don't actually get paid for it (and n

      • basically the publisher charges for organizing the peer review, editing and distribution.

        That used to be the case, but increasingly in the USA over the last 20 years, companies like elsevier have been following a new paradigm: the publisher charges to make a profit.

        • That used to be the case, but increasingly in the USA over the last 20 years, companies like elsevier have been following a new paradigm: print whatever the corporations what you to print

          There, fixed that for you [the-scientist.com]. Just don't want anyone to think elsevier is a credible publisher of scientific journals.

    • If an organization is in a position to erect a paywall, they will likely do so. If you inquire into it, they'll bombard you with bureaucracy and tell you that, in fact, you're only paying a symbolic amount for the work they do, and you should be thankful. Academia and science journals are big fans of this approach.

    • Maybe they did not read this? http://www.pdfernhout.net/open-letter-to-grantmakers-and-donors-on-copyright-policy.html [pdfernhout.net]
      "Foundations, other grantmaking agencies handling public tax-exempt dollars, and charitable donors need to consider the implications for their grantmaking or donation policies if they use a now obsolete charitable model of subsidizing proprietary publishing and proprietary research. In order to improve the effectiveness and collaborativeness of the non-profit sector overall, it is suggested

    • This information was mostly created by NASA. The Authors mostly have jobs at Universities. So why does a member of the public have to pay $32 to read this paper?

      The authors are at a mixture of American and German institutions (that information is freely available) ; the publication is British (costs a little research). So surely your question should be "why should anyone who is not British, German or American have to pay â30(Euro symbol, thank you incompetence of Slashcode) to read the full article?

      To

  • And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
    You shout and no one seems to hear.
    And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
    I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Thing 1 ( 178996 )

      "The lunatic is on the grass" -- oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! :)

      And, wow, lol at the fortune: "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat? -- Pink Floyd" (The randomness of the universe continues to amaze me...)

    • There's no dark side of the moon really.

      Matter of fact its all dark.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by alext ( 29323 )
      ...cloudbursts thunder...

  • Dang, it's protected. Anyone know what the WEP key is? I really want to use their WiFi on my moon vacations every other Tuesday.

  • Had this been a true to the title story, it would be phenomenal.
    Its about lava activity 800million years ago, still cool though (sic)

    You guys are stuck with starbucks and wifi ...

  • i dont have to worry about internet connectivity when on business trips to the dark side...

    • i dont have to worry about internet connectivity when on business trips to the dark side...

      There is no dark side of the moon. As a matter of fact, it's all dark.

  • ... and they found it [youtube.com] early.

  • Dang, I read the headline and thought "There's our portal into the galactic internet".

  • ***** THERE IS NO HOTSPOT ON THE MOON *****
    ***** THERE ARE NO VOLCANOES ON THE MOON *****
    ***** THE EVIDENCE IS OF VOLCANISM 800,000,000 YEARS AGO *****

    derGoldstein, please read the articles you BEFORE you type the summary AND TITLE. I mean, if you are linking to an article, please read it first.

    Sincerely,

    The Rest Of SlashDot

    • Thank you for your constructive criticism. The title is actually the title as it appears on Discovery.com, and the part that's in quotes is ( -- wait for it -- ) a quote. I'm sure that Discovery News has a feedback section -- you should contact them asap, and include your edifying CAPS-LOCK comments.
    • In addition to derGoldstein's valid points, as a geologist (a planetary scientist specialising in the planet that you reside on) the title, summary and article all seemed perfectly correct to me. "Hotspot" has been a geological term for some 25 years longer than it's been a computing term - in fact I was deeply puzzled by the first few comments talking about telephone companies and didn't make the connection until later. (Then again, people have died in my work for using wireless when misconfigured cards ha

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Hello hunam, Fwiffo was on pluto!

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • And I'm not paying for the trip either.

  • It took long enough, but the Terran's have just found their natural expansion point for a second Command Post -- better send some over some SCV's

    • I think you have it all wrong, it's time to park a recycler [gamespot.com] on the vent...

      (This reference even goes with the impactor theory... how quickly we forget the classics!)

  • wifi (Score:3)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2011 @07:48AM (#36882182) Homepage Journal

    Ok, hands up, who else thought "what the heck are they doing with WIFI on the moon?" upon reading the headline? :-)

  • ... it's the Sentinel's ship [wikipedia.org].

  • The moon is a giant space ship!

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