posted on Mar, 21 2012 @ 06:44 PM
I'd like some background of where this image comes from, there could be several explanations to describe what is going on, two of which I think I can
help to explain.
One, Could be simply the solar wind imaged from the side, it is obviously only going to approach half of the moon.
Two, maybe more obscure is the lunar makeup differs from the side that faces us from the other side. This occurred when the moon (and earth) were
young, and closer together, pulling (I'm speculating here) the materials that show up more in x-ray than the composition of the other side, mostly
the large dark mare we see, which is geologically different than vast regions on the other side due to the greater tidal forces at play then. The
gravitational pull from the earth surfaced more of the molten minerals to the side facing us.
Here it simply states it is the sunlit side. With more digging I
can find the spectrographic images that show the difference from side to side I was speaking of in my second hypothesis.