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Moon's Bulge Explained

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the put-some-cream-on-that dept.

anthemaniac writes "The moon has an unexplained bulge that astronomers have been trying to find a source for since 1799. Finally, an apparent answer: The equatorial bulge developed back when the developing moon was like molasses (and you thought it was cheese!) and, rather than today's nearly circular orbit, it 'moved in an eccentric oval-shaped orbit 100 million years after its violent formation.'"

18 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. no by GigsVT · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's just happy to see you.

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  2. Uh huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its nothing more than a little baby fat.

  3. Come on people, give the moon a break... by Bamafan77 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows your metabolism slows down after a certain age. Still though, a half hour a day on the treadmill probably wouldn't hurt either.

    1. Re:Come on people, give the moon a break... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      30 minutes a day on the treadmill? The fucker goes 1km/sec ALL DAY LONG!

      YOU do that, fat-ass!

    2. Re:Come on people, give the moon a break... by isellmacs · · Score: 5, Informative
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_(moon)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selene

      I'd say "Her" would be appropriate, as the name Luna (the name of our moon) comes from the Roman Goddess of the Moon.

    3. Re:Come on people, give the moon a break... by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 4, Funny

      (Wait, the moon IS a chick, isn't it?)

      Hmm. So beautiful it inspires poetry, so attractive it pulls the sea, and men feel compelled to spend more than they can afford just to walk all over it. Oh, and let's not forget, every 28 days it swells and causes dogs to howl.

      I think you're on the right track.

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    4. Re:Come on people, give the moon a break... by Shadow+Of+The+Sun · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the Norse mythos, the moon is masculine and the sun is feminine.

      And almost everything that Tolkien wrote is based off of the Norse mythos. For example, the Norse term for the Earth is Midgard. Midgard means "Middle Earth."

  4. The answer is apparent. by BoBathan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bulge at the equator, violent formation, clearly the Moon is American.

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    EOF
  5. Excellent... by Quaoar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now when I have to explain the bulge in my pants, I'll say it's because I'm eccentric! /Badump bump

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  6. scientific explanation debunked by peektwice · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a codpiece.

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  7. Monolith? by wingfoot · · Score: 4, Funny

    There wouldn't happen to be a strong magnetic field at the bulge would there....? How about a black monolith buried beneath the surface causing the bulge....?

  8. Missing energy by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So how did the eccentric orbit become so nearly circular? That takes a lot of energy ( and a little coincidence )

    1. Re:Missing energy by Jazzer_Techie · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, circular orbits are the lowest energy state. Thus, tidal forces cause the system to gradually lose energy until it settles into a circular orbit. When you add up the 1/r potential of gravity and the repulsive 1/r^2 centrifugal potential, you get a function with a nice minimum which is the radius of a circular orbit. The reason that elliptical orbits occur is because the period of the orbit exactly matches the period of oscillations around the minimum potential. Thus when you go around once, you end up right back where you started and get a closed, elliptical orbit. (Note that this is true only for Newtonian mechanics. Once you take General Relativity into account, the periods aren't the same and orbits precess. We can directly observe this in the orbit of Mercury as a perhelion shift of 43 arcseconds/century.)

  9. Like a dinosaur by Namarrgon · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and thin again at the other end.

    I have another theory, you know...

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  10. shapes by ah247msg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wish the bulge around my middle had as good an explanation... adam0@247msg.com

  11. mmmm.... by denttford · · Score: 5, Funny

    Space Beer.

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  12. Re:Wait a minute... by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right. I'd assume these guys accounted for the tendency of a rotating body to form an oblate spheroid, and that the moon's current orbit can't account for the degree of its oblacity (if that's a word). Thus it would need to have exhibited some more violent orbit in the past.

  13. Re:Wait a minute... by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't all circular/spherical objects bulge around the middle?

    If they are planets and they are spinning, yes. Just look at pics of the Jovian worlds, especially Saturn. And the Sun has a definite bulge. Of course, for most of the planets, the bulge is pronounced because they are still elastic to some degree. The Earth bulges owing to the fact that the continents are riding around on their crustal plates, which ooze on molten material, and the Moon is tugging on them as it goes aroudn us. The Moon's is more fascinating because it is a geologically dead world, so the bulge happened some time in the past and then got frozen in place.

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