Posted on 09/26/2019 9:46:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Billions of years ago, something slammed into the dark side of the moon and carved out a very, very large hole. Stretching 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) wide and 8 miles (13 km) deep, the South Pole-Aitken basin...
For decades, researchers have suspected that the gargantuan basin was created by a head-on collision with a very large, very fast meteor. Such an impact would have ripped the moon's crust apart and scattered chunks of lunar mantle across the crater's surface, providing a rare glimpse at what the moon is really made of.
...
Now, however... After analyzing the minerals in six plots of soil at the bottom of the South Pole-Aitken basin, a team of researchers argues that the crater's composition is all crust and no mantle, suggesting that whatever impact opened the crater billions of years ago did not hit hard enough to spray the moon's innards onto the surface.
... the team conducted reflectance tests on six patches of soil...
A crystalline rock called plagioclase was by far the most abundant mineral in each sample, accounting for 56% to 72% of the crater's composition, the researchers wrote. Formed as primordial oceans of lava cool, plagioclase is extremely common in the crusts of Earth and the moon alike, but it's less abundant in their mantles. Though the team detected other minerals in the crust that are more common in the moon's mantle, such as olivine, these rocks made up too small a fraction of the soil samples to suggest that part of the mantle had broken through the crust.
This mineral makeup complicates the theory that a giant, high-velocity meteor created the South Pole‐Aitken basin billions of years ago, as such an impact almost certainly would have scattered chunks of mantle over the lunar surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Money! It’s a gas. I’m all right, Jack, but keep your hand off of my stack.”
The crater was made by time and money. :P
Obviously, a space alien cat did it digging for a tinkle spot. What else could possibly make craters?
Still some Russian names, but Western, too.
We never should have landed a man on the moon. It’s a mistake. Now everything is compared to that one accomplishment. I can’t believe they could land a man on the moon . . . and taste my coffee! I think we all would have been a lot happier if they hadn’t landed a man on the moon. Then we’d go, They can’t make a prescription bottle top that’s easy to open? I’m not surprised they couldn’t land a man on the moon.
JK
What?? 27 posts and no Pink Floyd references?
There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact it’s all dark.
I took care of it.
Could an impact that big alter the orbit of the moon? Like space billiards.
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.
After analyzing the minerals in six plots of soil at the bottom of the South Pole-Aitken basin, a team of researchers argues that the crater's composition is all crust and no mantle, suggesting that whatever impact opened the crater billions of years ago did not hit hard enough to spray the moon's innards onto the surface.
As you no doubt know, the theory that the Moon was formed from ejecta from the Earth at least used to assume that most of the ejecta was of crustal material, rather than mantle material. Have feet, will ping later. Thanks Army Air Corps.
The earth is one big complex machine built by God for our use. The moon is part of that machine.
The side of the moon we never see from earth is the far side of the moon, not the dark side. All sides of the moon get dark or light depending on where the moon is in its orbit around the earth.
There are researchers putting forth a theory that electric discharge can also produce craters. In one scenario the solar system floats through a pocket of galactic dust, inducing static electric charge that arcs to and between planets and moons in a colossal way.
This crater and some smaller lunar and Martian craters fit this theory more than the standard impact hypothesis.
Fact... It is only an object to reflect light... As are we here on earth.
I do.
It was Alice Kramden.
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