Far side of the moon revealed in amazing mosaic of orbiter images!

Originally posted by gabbermatt
That's the very first thing that came to my mind when i saw this..... How does the side facing us have larger craters than the side exposed to space? It's really strange...

I'm curious how you are thinking the near side has larger craters than the far side. So we can compare apple to apples, here are the two sides in the same kind of orthographic view:

Near side:



Far side:



The far side definitely looks more heavily cratered to me.

In case the link was not posted.
Go here
And zoom your butts off.

wms.lroc.asu.edu...

reply to post by Saint Exupery


Isnt the moon the slowest spinning of the above mentioned just would like to know since you have the info already?

Originally posted by canadiancatfoodforcrocadi
reply to post by Saint Exupery

 

Isnt the moon the slowest spinning of the above mentioned just would like to know since you have the info already?

Saturn's moon Iapetus takes 79 days to rotate once on its axis and revolve once around Saturn. Our Moon takes about 28 days to rotate and revolve.

Probably the slowest rotating body in the solar system is Venus. Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate (spin on its axis) once. So a Venus "day" is 243 Earth days long. A Venus year is only 225 Earth days long, so a Venus "day" is longer than its year...
...However, Venus is not tidally locked to the Sun.

Can someone please explain, why is Earth not visable in the background?
Im curious is all, I would of thought if a photo from beyond the moon would
reveal the Earth due to the fact Earth is bigger & of course being close?

Im not trying to debunk, just looking for a scientific answer

reply to post by DarthPhobos

This is a composite mosaic of over 15,000 individual images, all taken from a point that was actually closer to the Moon than this composite image appears to be -- so I think the only thing in the field of view for the camera for most of these 15,0000 images was the Moon itself (except for perhaps some images that included to edge of the Moon).

In addition, the Earth and Moon are pretty far away from each other, and the Earth is not really that big as seen from the Moon. Apollo astronauts said they could blot out the entire Earth with their gloved thumb with their arm extended in front of them.

Also, consider the fact that the Sun is off to the sides in some of these 15,000 mosaic-piece images (which side varies from image to image), as evidenced by the shadows being cast by the craters. So the Sun-Moon-Earth are not in a straight line along the line-of-sight of the camera view, and the Earth itself may be off frame to the left or right of camera's frame.

But the real reason is what I said in the first paragraph: These 15,000 images are actually all close-up views of the Moon, all put together to make one full image. Considering this, the other reasons I listed are basically meaningless.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


But you can zoom in on the mosaics...via the link i provided.
Lot's of fun if you enjoy looking at this seldom seen side.

There are a few of the here
wms.lroc.asu.edu...

Quick question:

According to NASA the surface area of the moon is:
14,645,750 square miles

source: solarsystem.nasa.gov...

For comparison, the surface area of Texas, the second largest state in the United States, is:
261,914 square miles.

source: wiki.answers.com...

Half of the surface area of the moon is said to be silica, a material which is "colorless" or "white."

source: www.thefreedictionary.com...

Why is the (or close to the) majority (at least 50%) of the known composition of the surface of the moon silica, when the total percentage of the Earth's silica composition (not just the surface) is estimated at only 15%?

source: www.universetoday.com...

Can someone explain what region of the earth over 50 times the size of Texas, ever in Earth history, was 50% silica?

If not, how can it be effectively be argued that the moon originates from Earth and an impacting object?

reply to post by MothersofAmerica


The most common elements in the Earth's crust are oxygen (47%) and silicon (28%). The same is true for the moon, with an oxygen content of about 41% and silicon content of 22%.

Originally posted by MothersofAmerica

Quick question:

Why is the (or close to the) majority (at least 50%) of the known composition of the surface of the moon silica, when the total percentage of the Earth's silica composition (not just the surface) is estimated at only 15%?

source: www.universetoday.com...

(Emphasis mine)

You're making an invalid comparison: The composition of the Moon's surface versus the composition of the Earth's total volume

It would be the same if I said, "100% of the surface of an orange is rind, but only 5% (by mass) of a grapefuit is rind, How can they be considered similar citrus fruits?"

You say that most of the Moon's surface is silicates. Fine. Your link for the Earth's composition says,

We live on the outermost layer of Earth, called the crust. . . It’s mostly made of silicates . . .

So, using your own information, we can see that the surface composition of the Earth & Moon are significantly similar in at least one respect.

hell no i dont believe this! you can clearly see a divided line going down the middle! wow! and no i also dont believe this is some alien spaceship blah blah blah

hell no i dont believe this! you can clearly see a divided line going down the middle! wow! and no i also dont believe this is some alien spaceship blah blah blah

Originally posted by Sotelo
hell no i dont believe this! you can clearly see a divided line going down the middle! wow! and no i also dont believe this is some alien spaceship blah blah blah

It's a mosaic (composite) image of 15,000 individual images, taken at different times. There is one common "mosaic pieces seam" that runs down the center of the composite image, which is one reason that seam stands out.

Another reason the center seam stands out is because the people putting the images together (students and researchers at the Arizona State University) wanted to use images with the best sun-angle to view the craters -- the craters stand out better when there is a bit of a shadow at the rims. Therefore, most of the right side is sunlit from the right, and most of the left side is sunlit from the left, making the craters in the middle look odd because many have shadows on both the left rim and the right rim.

Can you say.... FASCINATING!

I did some toggling back and forth from the 1950's photo to this one and I cannot see the similarities other than a big ash colored ball.

Regarding the N-S line: Maybe its the moons taint?

I believe Al-Queda could be harboring WMD's in a few suspicious moon caves back there.

Really though, this is info from NASA so take it as you will. It's still pretty cool to look at whether or not it's cropped, photo-chopped, whatever. Either way, the moon serves good purpose by "taking it from behind" in order to protect Earth from the incoming assaults. We owe the moon (space-station or not) our gratitude

Originally posted by forall2see
Can you say.... FASCINATING!

I did some toggling back and forth from the 1950's photo to this one and I cannot see the similarities other than a big ash colored ball.

That''s because the first photos of the far side in 1959 were NOT just of the far side. The Moon was approaching its "First Quarter" phase when those 1959 pictures were taken, so what you see is some of the far side and some of the near side.

This was explained in these two posts a few pages back:

www.abovetopsecret.com...
and
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by nataylor


Good pics.

Can anyone else see the donut thing in the Far side picture, look directly down the vertical center in the middle, and then slightly to the right.

wms.lroc.asu.edu...

reply to post by mr-lizard


It's a crater with a central peak. Since you describe it as a "doughnut", you may be a victim of the illusion mentioned in this post.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

Well that explains it


There's another interesting thread about the moon that was posted about 10 hours ago. I really enjoyed the read.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by elfulanozutan0


just wait, it will only be a matter of time before somebody sees this and starts magnifying pixels...

reply to post by lektrofellon


The question I have is with the link provided, can see a bigger picture of that moon.....only, what is that line in the middle that is much more apparent when the picture is bigger and/or zoomed in?

I would be curious to see other pictures to compare