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The Moon's Two Sides Look So Different Thanks To 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Physics (forbes.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the good-side-bad-side dept.

StartsWithABang writes: 4.5 billion years ago, a giant object collided with our proto-Earth, kicking up debris that eventually coalesced into the Moon. While the near side contains dark maria and lunar lowlands, the far side is almost exclusive heavily cratered, high-mountainous regions. This was a mystery for a long time, but it appears that heating from the hot, young Earth caused a chemical and crustal difference between the two faces.

1 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Those _are_ some old physics. by berchca · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wish we still had physics like that today... these new-fangled ones just don't coalesce like they used to.