[meteorite-list] The Dark Side.. Oops!

From: Bernd V. Pauli <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:03:37 +0000
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000006100002EB6_at_10.0.100.101>

Phil wrote:

"Do people still say 'dark side of the moon'
when referring to the far side of the moon?


Cometary Scars on the Moon? (S&T, January 1988, pp. 11-12):

Certain mysterious whitish blotches on the lunar surface may be
the scars of comet impacts, perhaps less than 100 million years old.
Known as lunar swirls, the markings appear primarily on the Moon's
f a r s i d e
 Although more examples of these enigmatic features
exist on the Moon's f a r s i d e, only Reiner Gamma is easily
available for Earth-based study.

New Measures of the Moon (Sky & Tel, July 1995, pp. 32-33):

Zuber's team has combined Clementine's topography and gravity data to
estimate the thickness of the Moon's crust, confirming earlier hints that
it is thinner on the near side (60 km on average) than on the f a r s i d e
(68 km). But within some impact basins the crust has thinned dramatically.
It is thickest (nearly 120 km) on the f a r s i d e between the South
Pole-Aitken and proposed Procellarum basins.

The Moon's Atmosphere (Sky & Telescope, June 1989, p. 589):

While instruments found argon, neon, and helium on the d a r k s i d e and
the possibility of methane and ammonia at sunrise, the composition of the
daytime exosphere remained a mystery.

Lunar Volcanoes - William Herschel observed
lunar lights (Astronomy Now, April 1999, p. 58):

"April 19, 1787. I perceive three volcanoes in different places of
 the d a r k s i d e of the new moon."

Best wishes,

Bernd
Received on Thu 27 Oct 2011 05:03:37 PM PDT