An exhaustive examination of lunar gravity using data obtained by two NASA robotic spacecraft is offering new clues about why both sides of the moon – which is perpetually turned to Earth and what is always far away – seem so different.
Data from the US space agency Gravity and Interior Laboly (Grail) indicate that the deep interior of the moon has an asymmetrical structure, apparently caused by intense volcanism on its next side billions of years ago, which helped shape its superficial characteristics.
The researchers found that the close side of the moon flexes slightly more than the side away during its elliptical orbit around the earth, thanks to the gravitational influence of our planet – a process called tide deformation. This indicates differences on both sides of the lunar interior, they said, specifically in the geological layer called mantle.
“Our study shows that the interior of the moon is not uniform: the earth-facing side-the next side-is warmer and more geologically more active in the depths than the away side,” said Ryan Park, supervisor of the solar system dynamic group at NASA Jet Propulsion in California and the main author of the study published on Wednesday (14) in (14) Nature magazine.
The next side of the moon is covered by vast plains, called seas, formed by a melted rock that cooled and solidified billions of years ago. Its away side has a much more rugged terrain, with few plains.
Some scientists have hypothesized that intense volcanism within the next side, which caused heat -generating radioactive elements to accumulate on that side of the cloak, propelled the surface differences observed today. The new findings offer the strongest evidence so far to support this notion.
The researchers estimated that the next side cloak, on average, is about 100 to 200 ° C warmer than the away side, with the thermal difference perhaps supported by the radioactive decay of the thorium and titanium elements on the next side.
“The next side and the moon away from the moon seem very different, as shown by the differences in topography, crust thickness and the amount of heat producing elements inside,” Park said.
The moon diameter of about 3,475 km is a little more than a quarter in the earth’s diameter. The lunar cloak is the layer located below the crust and above the core, covering a depth of about 35-1.400 km below the surface. The cloak is approximately 80% of the mass and volume of the moon and is mainly composed of the olivine and pyroxenic minerals, similar to the Earth’s cloak.
“The fact that the asymmetry detected in the cloak corresponds to the standard of surface geology-for example, differences in the abundance of basalts (volcanic rock) of approximately 3-4 billion years between the next side and the apart-suggests that the processes that boosted the old lunar volcanism are active today,” said Caltech Computational Scientist and study co-author Alex Berne, affiliated with Jet Provension Laboratory, working on the project of severity sensor for missions to the exterior solar system.
The researchers spent years analyzing data from EBB and Flow of the Grail Mission, which orbited the moon from December 2011 to December 2012.
“Our study provides the most detailed and accurate gravitational map of the moon to this day,” Park said.
“This enhanced gravitational map is a critical basis for the development of Lunar positioning, navigation and time (PNT) systems, which are essential to the success of future lunar exploration missions. By improving our understanding of the moon gravitational field, it contributes to establishing a precise and reliable lunar time system and reliable navigation for spaces and surface operations,” Park added.
The same approach employed here using gravity data to evaluate the lunar interior, the researchers said, could be applied to other bodies of the solar system, such as Saturn’s Equero Moon and Jupiter’s Ganimed moon, two worlds of interest in the search for potential life beyond Earth.
Meanwhile, the new discoveries increase the understanding of the eternal companion of the earth.
“The moon plays a vital role in stabilizing the rotation of the earth and the generation of ocean tides, which influence natural systems and daily rhythms,” Park said. “Our knowledge of the moon has expanded through human and robotic missions that revealed details about its surface and inner, but many questions about its deep structure and history remain. As our nearest neighbor, the moon remains an important focus of scientific discovery.”
See also: India launches mission towards the hidden side of the moon
Moon may have “turned inside out” during training, says new study
Was this content originally published in why the two sides of the moon seem so different? Gravity explains on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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