First Word On Results From GRAIL, NASA's Moon Gravity Mission 40
An anonymous reader writes "Nature has advance word on the first science results from GRAIL, NASA's twin probes launched a year ago which are mapping the gravity of the Moon from lunar orbit. This is coming out in advance of any official publication or NASA release, so the data isn't available, but the story trails what the PI Maria Zuber told a Harvard CFA colloquium last week are some of the team's key scientific findings: including that the Moon's crust is substantially thinner than once thought; and some of the more speculative impact basins haven't been confirmed."
thin crust (Score:1)
Hmm, so the inside of the moon is softer?
Re:thin crust (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
The cheese?
Radical opinion here. (Score:3, Funny)
the Moon's crust is substantially thinner than once thought;
The Moon is really cheese cake - cheese doesn't have a crust but cheese cake does.
If it were fried cheese with a jalapeno center - a Moon Popper - the orbit would be completely different.
Re:Radical opinion here. (Score:5, Funny)
The "crusts" on cheese are more commonly known as skins.
Cheese cake doesn't have a crust, it has a base.. and we haven't seen any moon bases yet.
I have to say that I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of moon poppers. Poppers are the moondog's nuts.
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The salient point being that it is underneath, not on top.
Hm, that's not very flame-y... Don't want to disappoint...
Ah! Cheesecake flambe! It might have a thin seared crust on top!
Re:Radical opinion here. (Score:5, Informative)
It's not called a "crust" or a "skin", it's called the rind.
Cheeses can have both rinds and crusts. The rind is on the outside, and is intended to be there. Crusts, on the other hand, develop mostly unintentionally, and often on the inside too after a cheese has been cut. An outside crust can be treated, e.g. with brine, to create a rind.
As for skins, yes, some have those too. Jarlsberg, for example, has a sprayed on rubbery skin between the cheese and the protective wax. It is NOT a rind, and not meant for consumption (and neither is the protective wax, although I've seen dolts that eat it).
In addition to these, some moist cheeses like Cabecou and Gamalost develop fur [blogspot.com] instead. It's a fungal layer which can be quite tasty. Sometimes it's compressed into the cheese again to make part of the rind, like in a Brie.
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So how come a pizza is a "pie"?
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Because it's built on a pastry crust [wikipedia.org]
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What more proof do you need that it's made of cheese, eh?
Everyone knows the moon is hollow:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hollow+moon+theory [google.com]
Duh... ;-p
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I'm so disappointed the top link isn't to the Superfriends episode where a space monster hatches out of the moon. :(
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Not cheese.... Chewy Nougat.
Thin Crust?! (Score:1)
Aha! I knew it! "Thin Crust" -- The moon's not made of cheese it's a Pizza!
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"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..."
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Non-oblig. comic ref. [sheldoncomics.com]
That said, I think "data" counts as a "non-count" noun in its typical modern usage. Like "information", or "water", or "peanut butter", it may be composed of many individual bits, but it's talked about as a blob, not as a large number of individual bits.
Map this place from orbit. (Score:5, Funny)
It's the only way to make sure.
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A magnetic anomaly, buried in a crater on the far side of the moon?
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initial data (Score:2)
Crosses fingers (Score:2)
The real excitement (Score:4)