far side of the moon revealed

[bennycog]

lets see what airbrushing is done in these pics.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glanceview/137290/far-side-of-the-moon-revealed.glance

NASA has released images which reveal the heavily cratered surface of the moon in all of its complexity.

The pictures showing the far side of the moon were taken by NASA'a Luna Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO), with the resolution of the images increased over 100 times.

NASA hopes to provide near-GPS-like navigational capability of the moon's surface in the next two years. The green areas show the low points of the moon while the red shows the highest.

[bilko]

quote....NASA hopes to provide near-GPS-like navigational capability of the moon's surface in the next two years....Quote

WHY?

Yes it would be lovely to have a near perfect map of the moon but are they going to show us anything sensitive? I doubt it.
Also not forgetting that this little project will in no way serve 99.9999% of the population, why not spend the money on something a little closer to home like education, medical research, homelessness?
Slightly playing devils advocate here because i am one of the 0.0001% of the population that would love to see this happen.

[Taurean]

The thing that bothers me about the craters is that they all look to be vertical impacts. Whereas I would have thought that most of them should hit at an angle, which would make them a more of a elongated trench like impact. Looks more like a solidified foam to me.

[bennycog]

i like your thinking Taurean.. i am not sure if after some length of time the craters look more circle than elongated..

it is a very wierd thing to have the gps of the moon yes Bilko.. maybe the astranouts there need to find their way around.. all the landscape must look the same there..

[bilko]

The thing that bothers me about the craters is that they all look to be vertical impacts. Whereas I would have thought that most of them should hit at an angle, which would make them a more of a elongated trench like impact. Looks more like a solidified foam to me.
I read somewhere recently that the craters are all wrong for a different reason. The size of impact to make the width of some of the craters should produce a much deeper crater, but they do not. It said that it was as if the craters had been filled in afterwards. Speculation was offered about enclosures being built such as doors to cover what was inside.
Then again one would have thought that the craters would be extraordinarily deep due to the minimal velocity needed to discard material in a low gravity environment.

[str8thinker]

These photos confirm what I've suspected all along - underneath the top layers it's all green cheese!

[Humble Janitor]

By far side, do they mean dark side?

If so, Pink Floyd beat them to it by 37 years. :P

[xbusymom]

gee- that's so pretty!, but it still looks like one of my grandkids christmas tree ornaments...

[neptuneforce]

tonight's a total lunar eclipse/ winter solstice & the moon is going to at perigee with earth on christmas