Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Mystery Solved? Why There are No Lunar ‘Seas’ On The Far Side Of The Moon

Mystery Solved? Why There are No Lunar ‘Seas’ On The Far Side Of The Moon:

Composite image of the far side of the moon taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. Credit: NASA

Composite image of the far side of the moon taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. Credit: NASA
In these days of daily image releases from Saturn, Mars, the Moon and other spots in the universe, it’s hard to remember just how exciting it was back in the 1950s and 1960s when a few images trickled out to the world at the time. Perhaps one of the biggest early surprises was how jagged and cragged the back side of the moon looked. Where were the lunar “seas” that we are familiar with on the Earth-facing side of the moon?

About 55 years after the first Soviet images of the farside were sent to Earth, a team of researchers led by graduate astrophysics student Arpita Roy (at Penn State University) may have an explanation.

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Read the rest of Mystery Solved? Why There are No Lunar ‘Seas’ On The Far Side Of The Moon (321 words)


© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
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