
A new model, “The Big Splat”, explains the strange asymmetry of the moon (2014) - furcyd
http://nautil.us/issue/74/networks/when-the-earth-had-two-moons-rp
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DamnInteresting
When I read this article this morning I was confused by "In two years NASA
will launch InSight" and "The New Horizons spacecraft will make a close flyby
in 2015". I had to scroll to the bottom of the article to see the sheepish
confession that this is a re-run from 2014. Look of disapproval.

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perl4ever
"“so it creates not only a crustal asymmetry but also a thermal asymmetry.” A
concentration of heat on one side of the moon could also cause it to expand"

Another recent paper I read suggested that there was a heat asymmetry because
the earth was molten after the collision that produced the moon, and the moon
being smaller cooled off quicker, except for the nearside that was receiving
earthshine which would have been comparable to a nearby star.

Edit: it seems the article is from 2014, so maybe that was before the paper
I'm referring to.

