Scientists Have Found a Hot Spot on the Moon's Far Side (universetoday.com) 46
Wikipedia notes that "Today, the Moon has no active volcanoes even though a significant amount of magma may persist under the lunar surface."
But this week the New York Times reports that "The rocks beneath an ancient volcano on the moon's far side remain surprisingly warm, scientists have revealed using data from orbiting Chinese spacecraft." The findings, which appeared last week in the journal Nature, help explain what happened long ago beneath an odd part of the moon. The study also highlights the scientific potential of data gathered by China's space program, and how researchers in the United States have to circumvent obstacles to use that data...
The Chinese orbiters both had microwave instruments, common on many Earth-orbiting weather satellites but rare on interplanetary spacecraft. The data from Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 thus provided a different view of the moon, measuring the flow of heat up to 15 feet below the surface — and proved ideal for investigating the oddity... At Compton-Belkovich, the heat flow was as high as 180 milliwatts per square meter, or about 20 times the average for the highlands of the moon's far side. That measure corresponds to a temperature of minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit about six feet below the surface, or about 90 degrees warmer than elsewhere. "This one stuck out, as it was just glowing hot compared to anywhere else on the moon," said Matthew Siegler, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz., and who led the research...
"Now we need the geologists to figure out how you can produce that kind of feature on the moon without water, without plate tectonics," Dr. Siegler said.
Universe Today believes this could help scientists better understand the moon's past. "What makes this finding unique is the source of the hotspot isn't active volcanism, such as molten lava, but from radioactive elements within the now-solidified rock that was once molten lava billions of years ago."
Thanks to Slashdot reader rolodexter for sharing the news.
But this week the New York Times reports that "The rocks beneath an ancient volcano on the moon's far side remain surprisingly warm, scientists have revealed using data from orbiting Chinese spacecraft." The findings, which appeared last week in the journal Nature, help explain what happened long ago beneath an odd part of the moon. The study also highlights the scientific potential of data gathered by China's space program, and how researchers in the United States have to circumvent obstacles to use that data...
The Chinese orbiters both had microwave instruments, common on many Earth-orbiting weather satellites but rare on interplanetary spacecraft. The data from Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 thus provided a different view of the moon, measuring the flow of heat up to 15 feet below the surface — and proved ideal for investigating the oddity... At Compton-Belkovich, the heat flow was as high as 180 milliwatts per square meter, or about 20 times the average for the highlands of the moon's far side. That measure corresponds to a temperature of minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit about six feet below the surface, or about 90 degrees warmer than elsewhere. "This one stuck out, as it was just glowing hot compared to anywhere else on the moon," said Matthew Siegler, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz., and who led the research...
"Now we need the geologists to figure out how you can produce that kind of feature on the moon without water, without plate tectonics," Dr. Siegler said.
Universe Today believes this could help scientists better understand the moon's past. "What makes this finding unique is the source of the hotspot isn't active volcanism, such as molten lava, but from radioactive elements within the now-solidified rock that was once molten lava billions of years ago."
Thanks to Slashdot reader rolodexter for sharing the news.
Here it comes.. (Score:4, Funny)
Clearly this is a secret alien base. The appropriate people will be along to inform us of it shortly.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Clearly this is a secret alien base. The appropriate people will be along to inform us of it shortly.
Always with the aliens missing the far more obvious explanation. Moon Nazis.
Re: (Score:2)
Dude... It's a megastructure. [penguinrandomhouse.com]
Duh!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yay at least someone got my post :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Clearly this is a secret alien base. The appropriate people will be along to inform us of it shortly.
Always with the aliens missing the far more obvious explanation. Moon Nazis.
"This is a symbol of peace!!!"
Re: Here it comes.. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Merely a Lunar Thermal Anomaly.
Most likely the heat is from thorium decay, but it would be wise to excavate the site in case any large monoliths are to blame.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Here it comes.. (Score:1)
re alien Elvis impersonators (Score:1)
That would make a funny spoof, along the lines of the Trek episode where a planet got a book about 1920's gangsters and modeled their world around it. Now we can have Invasion of the Elvinians. Their pompadours shoot ray beams.
Re: (Score:1)
Pic [cnet.com]
Re: re alien Elvis impersonators (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Thank You for the correction.
Re: (Score:1)
Very reassuring how everyone and their dog seems to prefer nazi's to aliens....
Re: (Score:2)
Clearly this is a secret alien base. The appropriate people will be along to inform us of it shortly.
They didn't shield their exhaust port properly.
Re: (Score:2)
Aliens... really????
Don't be silly. I watched that documentary Iron Sky [wikipedia.org] which clearly showed that it's Nazis!
Re: (Score:3)
If we are looking at the man in the moon from the front and there is a hot spot in the back, I have to wonder what he has been eating.
Re: (Score:2)
Cheese?
Re: (Score:2)
Autocannibalism? The horror!
Re: Here it comes.. (Score:2)
Not *sayin* it is an alien base, but I am saying if there is a hollow hole in the top of that volcano, we probably should not send a probe down it.
Spherical spaceship from Arkon (Score:2)
The meeting with the spaceship on the dark side of the moon is described in the (famously inaccurate) German prophetic documention series "Perry Rhodan", which has been published uninterrupted, one issue per week, since 1961. They originally expected the discovery of the Arkonites to happen in 1971 on occasion of the first manned moon flight. But then the first moon flight happened two years earlier and went to the visible side of the moon...
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Simulation Rendering artefact (Score:1)
Re:Simulation Rendering artefact (Score:4, Insightful)
Not this simulation bullshit again. The entire notion stems from the Bekenstein-Hawking theorem that the information in the interior of a black hole is represented on the surface. This was carried further in the AdS-CFT correspondence where there is a mathematical homomorphism between Antt-deSitter Space and Conformal Field Theory which shows that the interior of a confined space can be described by information on its boundary. It is just that, a mathematical homomorphism. Mathematics is not physics.
AdS has a negative cosmological constant. The actual universe has a positive cosmological constant. In addition, AdS is neither contracting nor expanding but remains as it is forever and from ever. This does not describe our expanding universe. Besides, there is no outside surface on which to represent the information in the bulk (interior).
In addition, the notion of a simulation is brittle in the philosophical sense. If this were a simulation, then your belief that it is a simulation is itself simulated and hence not real.
Re: (Score:2)
The simulation nuts will merge with the flat earthers, and claim we are in a 2D simulation. 3D is a Deep State Illusion.
Re: Simulation Rendering artefact (Score:3)
The idea that the world is a simulation is 5,000 years old, as old as the written word.
There is nothing that can be done to disprove it short of whoever is simulating us intervening by changing the rules or the simulation.
In the end, whether it is simulated or not, doesn't matter. Whatever we perceive as our reality is real to us.
Re: (Score:1)
Not this simulation bullshit again. The entire notion stems from the Bekenstein-Hawking theorem that the information in the interior of a black hole is represented on the surface.
That's not the current simulation argument, which can more simply be stated (ignoring the simulation as a study version) like this :
At any given time, there are more virtual or simulated worlds than real ones, so by simple probabilities alone, you're more likely to be in a virtual/simulated world than the "real" world.
Every instance of single or multiplayer game or can be thought of as a virtual or simulated world, and for the sake of gameplay, these simulations are getting increasingly complex (think o
Circumvent obstacles? (Score:2)
and how researchers in the United States have to circumvent obstacles to use that data...
If I recall correctly, Kepler and JWST have a first dibs policy on their data before it gets opened to the public.
US researchers have no right to complain.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe someone (like the New York Times) can point out what these "obstacles" were. The paper notes in several places that the Chang'e data is pretty widely used. It's also freely available. Unlike the Times article.
I'm not saying it's Nazis (Score:5, Funny)
Most important questions (Score:2)
Now that we know the moon has a hot backside it is time to ask: what do the moon people call the act of mooning?
Radioactivity? (Score:5, Informative)
It seems likely to be a concentration of radioactive materials, otherwise known as a natural nuclear reactor [wikipedia.org].
Failing that, they should check for a magnetic anomoly and a black monolith.
Re: (Score:1)
> they should check for a magnetic anomaly and a black monolith.
The found a black monolith. It was an MS Surface. They nuked it from orbit, then got the fuck outta there
Re: (Score:3)
I saw that documentary! [youtube.com] They changed the story a little though.
1 : 4 : 9 (Score:3)
a Hot Spot (Score:2)
I also found a hot spot on the moon's far side, but my request for a mission to explore it was denied.
Sorry, But... (Score:1)