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Hotspot Found On Moon's Far Side

Posted by Soulskill on from the thermal-exhaust-port dept.

derGoldstein tips this news from Discovery.com: "Scientists have found evidence of volcanoes on the far side of the moon. The new discovery, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience (abstract) is a rare example of volcanism on the lunar surface not associated with asteroid, meteor or comet impact events. ... They focused on an area containing numerous domes, some more than six kilometers high. The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, 'volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava.'"

3 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Submission completed by dtmos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The domes featured steeply sloping sides which Jolliff and colleagues interpret as, 'volcanic in origin and formed from viscous lava'. . .

    . . . 800 million years ago. While undeniably still an interesting and intriguing find, it was a hotspot, um, a while back.

    1. Re:Submission completed by derGoldstein · · Score: 3

      The history of the moon is a subject that keeps being revised and researched. If you asked 20 years ago: "What is the Moon's origin?", it's likely that you'd be told it was a planet that got caught in Earth's gravity, because using the information they had then, it was the most likely theory. Now the Giant Impact Hypothesis is favored. And water on the moon? Just a few years ago that would be a joke. Any new information helps.

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      Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
  2. Hotspot Found on Moon's Far Side by tomcode · · Score: 5, Funny

    The bad news: You need an AT&T account to use it.

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    f u cn rd ths u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmng