Discover why the moon is shaped like a lemon – Terra Colombia

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July 31, 2014 • 15:24

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BBC World, @ bbc_ciencia

full orange or Red Crescent, the moon continues to fascinate and amaze.

And though seen from Earth it may seem, its true form is not a perfect sphere.

What’s more, say scientists, natural satellite of our planet is more like a lemon.

Now, at last, have discovered why have these deformed contours.

To this end, a team of U.S. researchers calculated the effect they had the forces of rotation and tide in the form of the early Moon.

So concluded that its own twists and strength of the tide, ie the gravitational force of the Earth, moon created a “lemon-shaped” says the study published in the journal Nature.

This happened when the Moon was by liquid part under a thin crust rock-Gerrick said Ian Bethell, a researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz and lead author of the study.

Question of rotation

When the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, it turns red.

This interaction with our planet also caused a change of the moon on its axis.

“In the case of Earth, Mars and other bodies, we know that the dominant form of planet due to its rotation, “Gerrick-Bethell said.

” If you take a water balloon and you start to spin it, you will excel in Ecuador, and on Earth we have something very similar to that “.

This effect, however, does not explain what” surprisingly deformed “which is our moon.

” It’s turning very slowly, and is actually far from Earth, so it is unlikely that the current tidal forces are causing it. “

The new explanation found Gerrick-Bethell and his team is 4,000 million years ago when the Moon formed from the enormous debris thrown by the impact between a young Earth and a planetoid, the satellite was much closer to our planet.

This means that the tides were stronger.

“The Moon also spun much faster, “he told the BBC News.

” So there are a variety of interesting things that could have happened and changed its shape when the moon was very hot. “

Warm up and stretch

When the moon was born, it was liquid rock. As it cooled, the outer crust solidified and floated on a viscous ocean.

The gravitational force exerted by Earth tides raised on the Moon began to “flex and pull that thin crust” Gerrick-Bethell said.

This idea was inspired by a previous study on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which has a crust of ice floating on an ocean of water.

In a study from 2013, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin calculated how the heating produced by the acceleration of the tidal force, generated by the pull of Jupiter on the liquid water warm-was distributed in the icy crust of Europa.

Gerrick team-Bethell realized that a similar effect may have occurred in the ocean of liquid rock of the young moon.

The first tidal forces from a more Earth unevenly heated near the lunar crust, and while cooling, tidal forces set irregularities outside.

also solve mathematical problems caused by large craters and basins on the lunar surface that formed after the crust solidified.

These formations were difficult to explain in previous attempts to interpret the slightly flattened shape of the Moon.

But the conclusion arrived, say the scientists, is the best explanation yet of the strange shape of the Moon

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