For the First Time, China's Lunar Rover Maps 1,000 Feet Below the Moon's Dark Side (livescience.com) 32
LiveScience brings an update on China's Chang'e-4 — the first spacecraft to ever land on the far side of the moon.
Its Lunar Penetrating Radar has now mapped the lunar subsurface "in finer detail than ever before" by bouncing radio signals deep underground: Their results, which were published Aug. 7 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, reveal billions of years of previously hidden lunar history. These new data suggest the top 130 feet of the lunar surface are made up of multiple layers of dust, soil, and broken rocks, said lead study author Jianqing Feng, an astrogeological researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona... Farther down, the scientists discovered five distinct layers of lunar lava that seeped across the landscape billions of years ago.
Scientists think our moon formed 4.51 billion years ago, not long after the solar system itself, when a Mars-size object slammed into Earth and broke off a chunk of our planet The moon then continued to be bombarded by objects from space for roughly 200 million years. Some impacts cracked the moon's surface. Like Earth, the moon's mantle at that time contained pockets of molten material called magma, which seeped out through the newly formed cracks in a series of volcanic eruptions, Feng said.
The new data from Chang'e-4 shows that process slowing down over time: Feng and his colleagues found that the layers of volcanic rock grew thinner the closer they were to the moon's surface. This suggests that less lava flowed in later eruptions compared with earlier ones. "[The moon] was slowly cooling down and running out of steam in its later volcanic stage," Feng said. "Its energy became weak over time...."
However, there could still be magma deep underneath the lunar surface, Feng said.
Its Lunar Penetrating Radar has now mapped the lunar subsurface "in finer detail than ever before" by bouncing radio signals deep underground: Their results, which were published Aug. 7 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, reveal billions of years of previously hidden lunar history. These new data suggest the top 130 feet of the lunar surface are made up of multiple layers of dust, soil, and broken rocks, said lead study author Jianqing Feng, an astrogeological researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona... Farther down, the scientists discovered five distinct layers of lunar lava that seeped across the landscape billions of years ago.
Scientists think our moon formed 4.51 billion years ago, not long after the solar system itself, when a Mars-size object slammed into Earth and broke off a chunk of our planet The moon then continued to be bombarded by objects from space for roughly 200 million years. Some impacts cracked the moon's surface. Like Earth, the moon's mantle at that time contained pockets of molten material called magma, which seeped out through the newly formed cracks in a series of volcanic eruptions, Feng said.
The new data from Chang'e-4 shows that process slowing down over time: Feng and his colleagues found that the layers of volcanic rock grew thinner the closer they were to the moon's surface. This suggests that less lava flowed in later eruptions compared with earlier ones. "[The moon] was slowly cooling down and running out of steam in its later volcanic stage," Feng said. "Its energy became weak over time...."
However, there could still be magma deep underneath the lunar surface, Feng said.
Space awards for dictators. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Space awards for dictators. (Score:4, Interesting)
We should recognize the work of the scientists who made this happen, regardless of who the political leaders are. Even in the Soviet era the scientists did some impressive and important science, on the back of political motivations.
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Eeyore is Shinzo Abe in the classic meme (and Tigger is Obama). Putin was never featured.
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This is the picture where it all started: https://img.digitalag.ro/?u=ht... [digitalag.ro]
Below dark side (Score:4, Informative)
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"There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark."
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Earthshine is about 40x brighter than moonshine, so half of the moon is pretty noticeably darker than the other half.
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Sorry, while logically and using the semantics of English as is, you may sound correct. But the common meaning for Dark side of the moon is defined as
The hemisphere has sometimes been called the "dark side of the Moon", where "dark" means "unknown" instead of "lacking sunlight"
It is very common historically for dark to mean unknown.(Language is not static)
Calling it far side is IMO better but arguing about this shows either ignorence or you just trying to feel superior on a subject. Or just trolling.
In any case I hope English isn't your first language and you learned something.
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Maps or it didn't happen (Score:1)
- Lao-Tzu
Hidden Nazis (Score:2, Troll)
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They won't even tell us the moon is a hollow space station!
Russia has taken a more direct approach (Score:2)
[ba-DUM tsssh]
However, they only reached a few hundred feet down.
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Exactly this, but the vibration it produced into the rock did not sound like [ba-DUM tsssh]. Probably more like [Splouch]
Magma? (Score:2)
Tides (Score:2)
Tides also give heat.
1000 "feet"... 130 "feet"... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't understand these units. What's that in rods, barleycorns, or Macedonian cubits?
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> I don't understand these units
You ever meet someone who proudly proclaims they only speak one language?
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Haha. Joke's on you. We made the whole world speak English. Next, working on using better units.
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Early successes: whole aviation world uses altitude in feet, not meters. Speed in knots, not km/hr. (Admittedly nautical miles, but miles nonetheless. Airplanes don't care about minutes of latitude, even if redefined in terms of meters.) Only place not yet conquered in aviation is barometric air pressure and weight of fuel.
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Meh, I'd say aviation more uses flight levels...which are roughly equivalent to feet * 100, but not exactly, as they're based on air pressure.
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