The large dark spots are called maria, singular is mare, and are the result of thinner crust and volcanic activity. The other side has thicker crust and less volcanic activity.
Plus, its tidally locked, so any asteroids that hit our side would have to be able to pass us, meaning likely higher speed
Aww,absolutely adorable bless you,I hope you're having a lovely Winter Solstice and warmest wishes for the new year blessed with peace, love and happiness to you blessed be 🎄🧚♀️❤️❄️😘
I since discovered that this was taken by apollo 16 that was really close to the surface (max 122km) hence the more prominent craters. So its not unreasonable to expect a large enough base to be visible in these images.
so, does orbital physics explain the difference? Looks like the toward earth side has larger craters. does that mean the Earth is protecting the moon from smaller impacts on this side?
Fun fact: Though to us it seems that the moon does not rotate, it actually does. Its rotation is precisely as long in duration as its orbital time around the earth. 😎✌️
The Russians have supposedly measured the crust depth and the dark side is 30 km deeper. Posits the existence of 2 moons after the collision and a soft squeeze together too account for the extra rock .. never seen it since... Anyone?
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I heard that there were volcanoes on the Moon until 50 million years ago. And the dark parts of the side we see are volcanic material that settled into impact craters.
More on this from about 13 minutes into this popular science podcast. https://shirtloadsofscience.libsyn.com/moon-mysteries-with-kate-h-388
The soviet space program was not an exclusively russian effort with the chief engineer being ukranian and the launch facilities being in kazakhstan for example.
In the Earth-facing photo, it looks like the Moon is tilted on its side, or at least different from what I'm used to.
The outward facing side looks like it caught more meteors over time.
That's exactly what happened. In order for an asteroid to strike the near side of the moon, it would have to get pretty close to the Earth. Because the Earth is bigger, most of them would hit the Earth instead or be redirected into space.
Comments
Plus, its tidally locked, so any asteroids that hit our side would have to be able to pass us, meaning likely higher speed
but I can see both sides
You made pictures of
both sides
https://youtu.be/UtK0FZpGKCA?si=X1P5cuEkGn2E-_pO
PinkFLOYD
https://old.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/1h2wof2/i_imaged_the_moon_for_3_weeks_straight_to_reveal/
I'm 48 and I still never get tired of seeing it.
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It’s just that the Earth’s surface is much more active (erosion/deposition, plate tectonics etc), so the damage gets erased more quickly.
More on this from about 13 minutes into this popular science podcast.
https://shirtloadsofscience.libsyn.com/moon-mysteries-with-kate-h-388
The outward facing side looks like it caught more meteors over time.
😂
But I have READ numerous news stories where reporters have made that a central part of the story.