Gravity study shows why moon's two sides look so different
An exhaustive examination of lunar gravity using data obtained by two Nasa robotic spacecraft is offering new clues about why the two sides of the moon — the one perpetually facing Earth and the other always facing away — look so different.
The data from the US space agency's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), mission indicates that the moon's deep interior has an asymmetrical structure, apparently caused by intense volcanism on its nearside billions of years ago that helped shape its surface features.
The researchers discovered that the lunar nearside flexes slightly more than the farside during its elliptical orbit around Earth thanks to our planet's gravitational influence — a process called tidal deformation. This indicates differences in the two sides of the lunar interior, they said, specifically in the geological layer called the mantle.
"Our study shows that the moon's interior is not uniform: the side facing Earth - the nearside — is warmer and more geologically active deep down than the far side," said Ryan Park, supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The moon's nearside is covered by vast plains, called mare, formed from molten rock that cooled and solidified billions of years ago. Its far side has much more rugged terrain, with few plains.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Citizen
2 days ago
- The Citizen
WMO's new climate forecast warns the earth is getting hotter
Earth is on track to remain hot, or get hotter, over the next five years. Planet Earth – ecology concept, global warming concept, the effect of environment climate change. Elements of this image furnished by Nasa. Picture: https: The latest global climate forecast suggests that the average global temperature is likely to continue reaching record or near-record levels over the next five years. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the global climate predictions are expected to increase climate risks and impacts on societies, economies and sustainable development. Earth getting hotter The world is on track to remain hot, or get hotter, over the next five years, according to the report released last week by the WMO. The WMO report forecasts that the annually averaged global mean near-surface temperature for each year between 2025 and 2029 is predicted to be between 1.2°C and 1.9°C higher than the average over the years 1850-1900. It shows there is an 80% chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be warmer than the warmest year on record (currently 2024). And there is an 86% chance that at least one year will be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level. The report did not give global predictions for individual years. ALSO READ: Ramaphosa finds pen and signs Climate Change Bill into law Warnings Every additional fraction of a degree of warming drives more harmful heatwaves, extreme rainfall events, intense droughts, melting of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, heating of the ocean, and rising sea levels. The WMO's report – Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update for 2025-2029 – draws on forecasts from 15 international climate institutions, including the UK's Met Office, as the WMO Lead Centre for Annual to Decadal Climate Prediction. Global temperatures It provides some of the clearest near-term predictions of our warming world, and warns that global temperatures are set to remain at or near record highs for at least the next five years. 'We have just experienced the ten warmest years on record. Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet,' said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. 'Continued climate monitoring and prediction is essential to provide decision-makers with science-based tools and information to help us adapt.' ALSO READ: Embracing the power of drones to revolutionise farming practices 2024 WMO's State of the Global Climate 2024 report released in March confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. It was the warmest year in the 175-year observational record. In 2022, Professor Coleen Vogel, a climatologist with Wits University's Global Change Unit, warned about the rising temperatures. 'This is likely the warmest Earth has been in 125,000 years. It is possible that during the Last Interglacial, about 125,000 years ago, Earth has been warmer,' adding that such past periods of higher temperatures were caused by slow changes in the orbital characteristics of Earth, occurring over tens of thousands of years. Cop 30 This year's UN climate change conference, COP30, will consider updated climate action plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions which are crucial for achieving the Paris Agreement goals. Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to hold the increase in long-term global average surface temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. The scientific community has repeatedly warned that warming of more than 1.5°C risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts and extreme weather and every fraction of a degree of warming matters. ALSO READ: Natural disasters set to increase by 37% globally by 2025 – Report
TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Trump pulls Musk ally's NASA nomination, will announce replacement
The White House on Saturday withdrew its nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, abruptly yanking a close ally of Elon Musk from consideration to lead the space agency. President Donald Trump said he would announce a new candidate soon. 'After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. 'I will soon announce a new nominee who will be mission aligned, and put America First in space.' Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who had been Musk's pick to lead NASA, was due next week for a much-delayed confirmation vote before the US Senate. His removal from consideration caught many in the space industry by surprise. Trump and the White House did not explain what led to the decision. 'It may not always be obvious through the discourse and turbulence, but there are many competent, dedicated people who love this country and care deeply about the mission,' Isaacman said in a post on X. 'That was on full display during my hearing, where leaders on both sides of the aisle made clear they're willing to fight for the world's most accomplished space agency. 'I am incredibly grateful to President Trump, the Senate and all those who supported me.' His removal comes days after Musk's official departure from the White House, where the SpaceX CEO's role as a 'special government employee' leading the department of government efficiency created turbulence for the administration and frustrated some of Trump's aides. Semafor reported the news earlier.
Daily Maverick
5 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Musk aiming to send uncrewed Starship to Mars by end of 2026
Musk presented a detailed Starship development timeline in a video posted online by his Los Angeles area-based rocket company, SpaceX, a day after saying he was departing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as head of a tumultuous campaign to slash government bureaucracy. The billionaire entrepreneur had said earlier that he was planning to scale back his role in government to focus greater attention on his various businesses, including SpaceX and electric car and battery maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O. Musk acknowledged that his latest timeline for reaching Mars hinged on whether Starship can accomplish a number of challenging technical feats during its flight-test development, particularly a post-launch refueling maneuver in Earth orbit. The end of 2026 would coincide with a slim window that occurs once every two years when Mars and Earth align around the sun for the closest trip between the two planets, which would take seven to nine months to transit by spacecraft. Musk gave his company a 50-50 chance of meeting that deadline. If Starship were not ready by that time, SpaceX would wait another two years before trying again, Musk suggested in the video. The first flight to Mars would carry a simulated crew consisting of one or more robots of the Tesla-built humanoid Optimus design, with the first human crews following in the second or third landings. Musk said he envisioned eventually launching 1,000 to 2,000 ships to Mars every two years to quickly establish a self-sustaining permanent human settlement. NASA is currently aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon aboard Starship as early as 2027 – more than 50 years after its last manned lunar landings of the Apollo era – as a stepping stone toward ultimately launching astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Musk, who has advocated for a more Mars-focused human spaceflight program, has previously said he was aiming to send an unmanned SpaceX vehicle to the red planet as early as 2018 and was targeting 2024 to launch a first crewed mission there. The SpaceX founder was scheduled to deliver a livestream presentation billed as 'The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary' from the company's Starbase, Texas, launch site on Tuesday night, following a ninth test flight of Starship that evening. But the webcast was canceled without notice after Starship spun out of control and disintegrated in a fireball about 30 minutes after launch and roughly halfway through its flight path without achieving some of its most important test goals. Two preceding test flights in January and March failed in more spectacular fashion, with the spacecraft blowing to pieces on ascent moments after liftoff, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and forcing scores of commercial jetliners to change course as a precaution. Musk shrugged off the latest mishap on Tuesday with a brief post on X, saying it produced a lot of 'good data to review' and promising a faster launch 'cadence' for the next several test flights.
