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MIT-Led Mission Reveals the Moon's Battered Crust Is Riddled With Cracks

Posted by Soulskill on from the batter-the-crust-and-bake-for-4-billion-years dept.

SternisheFan sends this quote from the Boston Globe: "The moon's battered crust is riddled with deep fractures that may extend miles underground, according to the first findings from two NASA spacecraft orbiting Earth's nearest neighbor. The results of the mission, led by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist, surprised researchers, who said it will provide new insight into the evolution of the early solar system, and even help inform the search for life on Mars. Announced Wednesday, the discoveries are also a reminder that the familiar moon still holds secrets four decades after NASA ended its manned missions there. 'We have known that the moon's crust and other planetary crusts have been bombarded by impacts, but none of us could have predicted just how cracked the lunar crust is,' said Maria Zuber, the MIT geoscientist who led the mission, called GRAIL." Here are the abstracts from the three studies published in Science.

5 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. The mission let kids select lunar pictures by sighted · · Score: 3, Informative

    One of the interesting parts of this mission is MoonKAM, which let grade school and middle school kids select targets on the lunar surface for the orbiters' cameras to inspect. It returned some pretty interesting (if low-res) images until a solar flare recently took the imaging system down. If you're interested, there's some more info about GRAIL: today's announcement from NASA, and a public lecture tomorrow with a live feed.

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    Saddle up: Riding with Robots
  2. Re:No plate tectonics. by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it cooled before (or as) it was tidally locked to Earth. So the cracks could be remnants of tidal forces, not cooling. Not that the difference is important, but it may help for learning history of plants/moons.

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    Learn to love Alaska
  3. Re:What do you expect from a piece of Swiss cheese by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Green cheese refers to fresh cheese (one that has not completely dried out). With cracks and battered crust, it apparently is not made of green cheese.

  4. Re:Moon riddled with cracks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except that Pangaea was not the only super-continent, there have been several over the geological history we've worked out, and hints that they go further back before that too. It would seem to be an odd coincidence that an asteroid his Earth shortly after every super-continent was formed leading to another break up, as opposed to the same forces that created the continent being able to break it up again..

  5. Re:They're not cracks... by Lithdren · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The parent is of course, insane, but im afrade you're also inaccurate.

    Dec 21st 2012 is the end of the 13th baktun and the beginning of the 14th baktun. This is important to the Mayans as they believed that we live in the 4th itteration of the planet earth. The first 3 failed, for various reasons, the longest being the third, which lasted 13 baktuns. The coming of the 14th baktun is important to them because it means this world will now be the longest running. Previous worlds were not well suited to life, and humans didn't appear untill this particular version. It's a sign that this world is good, pure, and running well. Makes me laugh every time I read something about the end of the world, they couldn't be further from the truth.