Far side of the Moon geology explained

28:25>> Like we just it's just it's very simple like you know, and I I don't I just don't >> That's so true. >> Anyway. >> That's so true. Okay, so moving on. One one of the things that I want to talk about was the far side of the moon, which I'm sorry that in the last episode I kept saying dark side of the moon. I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd and I think that brain worm got into my head. >> Also, when we don't know stuff we call it dark like dark matter and dark energy. >> Yeah, yeah, but th- this one was was I I just like associated the Pink Floyd album to like that side. But by I I always meant far side of the moon because there's one part of the moon that we never get to see as humans on Earth because the moon rotates at the

29:06same rate that it revolves around the Earth. So, you know, my hand is pointing over here. If the moon was rotating faster than it evolves, then the moon would have a day-night cycle compared to Earth, right? But like because the moon is rotating at the same rate, the the the sort of the moon goes like this and I will only see that part, you know? And so the far side of the moon is in this case the back of my hand. We don't get to see that a lot. And so that was a big deal. This is a photo of Artemis 2 approaching the moon and you can see a stark difference between the near side of the moon, which is what we normally see, and that far side of the moon. Biggest difference is there's all these like gray areas >> Mhm. >> of like flat mare is what they're

29:49called. >> That's a mare. >> Yeah. Yeah, I I think it means seas. So maybe that's I don't know if that has anything to do with love. >> no, no, it doesn't. It doesn't. >> But Yeah. In any case, the you you see these flat sort of dark gray areas compared to the light gray that's only what you see on the far side. Um one of the cooling cool things that I learned about was why is the far side so different from the near side. The near side has all of these dark gray regions. Effectively, what's happening is it's because of the Earth. >> Okay. >> The side of the moon that is facing the Earth is going to have a greater gravitational

30:30attraction towards the Earth >> Mhm. >> compared to the side that's away. What does that mean? That means that if you've got heavy elements inside the moon during its formation, they're going to be lopsided. They're going to be ah especially given that tidal lock that I was telling you about. >> Yes. >> More of the heavy elements, those radioactive elements that are high up on the periodic table, are going to be closer to the Earth than they are to the far side. >> Because of the gravitational >> Because of the gravitation. What that means is there's going to be lopsided volcanic activity. >> Mhm. >> There's going to be geologic activity on the side that's facing us because the Earth keeps pulling those radioactive elements, but on the other side, you're not going to get that geologic activity.

31:11>> sense. >> Right? >> That makes sense. >> And so the mare are really these like basalt volcanic plains where you had geologic activity. And on the other side the craters are coming in, but there's nothing there's no lava that's outpouring to flatten everything up. And early early in the moon's history in the solar system history, there was bombardment right? 3.8 billion years ago, there was this thing called late heavy bombardment. And so on the far side, you're going to get a lot of that bombardment, it's not going to get clean washed away. This is a photo from the far side, and one of the main features that the Artemis crew was told to focus on because we never see it from our side

31:51is this like giant crater that you see there. It's called a Mare Orientale, the Oriental Basin. It's a giant meteor impact with multiple rings >> Mhm. >> around it. >> Okay. >> Something very cool. The initial crater that formed is no longer active. When that initial crater happened, it sort of emulsified the lunar surface, and there was ringing that happened. You can imagine ripples >> Ah. >> in the actual moon's crust. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> And those ripples hardened into rings. There's an inner ring and an outer ring. >> Ah, that's so nice. >> Isn't that so cool >> Yeah, that's very nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. >> It over several hours, people have done modeling, and it takes like several hours for that ringing to happen cuz

32:33it's literally lava >> Right. >> that's ringing at some point, right? >> It's like a wave pool but a little slower cuz it's lava. Yeah, it's super viscous like molten rock. But at the end of the day, you're getting these rings from those ripples solidifying on the lunar surface. Very, very cool. So, they got to the far side of the moon. The far side of the moon has a lot of craters, some of which are unnamed.