[BenLurkin]

ping

[Fungi]

HaHaHaHa............

[Repeal The 17th]

A simpler explanation would be that
the far side of the moon is exposed to deep space
and whatever may be hurled at it,
while the near side of the moon is shielded from all of that by the earth.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

** ping **

[lee martell]

Kamala snaps: “Who you callin’ a Two Faced Moon?”

[alexander_busek]

Very irritating, how the article repeatedly refers to "heat-producing elements" rather than simply "radioactive elements" (which, of course, liberate heat during decay).

Regards,

[P.O.E.]

If the moon split off from the earth way back when:

The near side was once part of the inside of earth, thus the vulcanism.

The far side the outside of the earth, but without the benefit of weathering to hide the meteoric scarring or plate tectonics to create mountains, etc.

Just expounding on a theory.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth wouldn’t that mean that the Moon is more likely to be bombarded on the side facing away from us? Isn’t the Earth in the way of many asteroids and comets that would otherwise hit it on the side facing us?

[PIF]

Procellarum KREEP terrane (PKT) — a concentration of potassium (K), rare earth elements (REE), phosphorus (P), along with heat-producing elements like thorium.

—
Well now we know what all those alien mining operations are going after.

[Verginius Rufus]

It has only been a mystery since 1959. Before that, no one knew what the far side of the moon looked like.

I'm old enough to remember my father telling me that no one knew what the far side of the moon looked like. When the Soviets managed to photograph the far side, my mother's immediate reaction was to doubt them, to think they were faking the photos.