Febuary 13, 2008
For the first time, scientist and researches are able to see the second hemisphere of the moon which is not visible from earth. A Japanese space program called SELENE (“KAGUYA) launched a satellite that orbits the moon and slows down while passing over lower density regions and speeds up while passing over higher density regions, all the while broadcasting radio waves. The radio waves are then sent to the scientist on earth and are converted into a gravity map. These maps reveal striking differences between the lit side of the moon and the hidden side. While the lit side is covered with smooth, dark volcanic material, the dark side is covered with craters and highland rocks.
These discoveries could potentially give vital information to scientist concerning the creation of not only the moon, but planet earth. NASA is also excited about the findings and hope to converse with the Japanese concerning the maps. If NASA were to retrieve the maps, Scientist could potentially unlock vital clues to sending a man to mars as the moon serves as a substitute until the technology is developed to reach mars. These findings could potentially speed up the process of sending the man to mars and hopefully within our lifetime.
While I did enjoy this article a lot, I believe they could have explained what these findings really meant. While they did say finally, the language was unclear and someone without much knowledge of earth science would have trouble following what the author meant. I would have also liked if the author had given some background of the moon and how scientist have previously thought the earth and moon were created. Overall though, I thought it was an interesting and informing article.
These discoveries could potentially give vital information to scientist concerning the creation of not only the moon, but planet earth. NASA is also excited about the findings and hope to converse with the Japanese concerning the maps. If NASA were to retrieve the maps, Scientist could potentially unlock vital clues to sending a man to mars as the moon serves as a substitute until the technology is developed to reach mars. These findings could potentially speed up the process of sending the man to mars and hopefully within our lifetime.
While I did enjoy this article a lot, I believe they could have explained what these findings really meant. While they did say finally, the language was unclear and someone without much knowledge of earth science would have trouble following what the author meant. I would have also liked if the author had given some background of the moon and how scientist have previously thought the earth and moon were created. Overall though, I thought it was an interesting and informing article.
3. He gave a lot of detail that was in the actual article.
ReplyDelete2. He explained why this new information about the moon could be important.
1. He explains the physical features of each side of the moon.
2. He could have explained why the satellite slows down while passing over lower density regions and sped up over higher density ones.
1. He could have elaborated on how these discoveries could give us vital information about the Earth's creation.
1. I learned that the Moon has two very different sides of its surface. That one is smooth and volcanic while one is covered with craters and highland rock.
1. Very interesting
ReplyDelete2. Adding picture was nice
3. gave a solid amount of information about the article
1. doesn't say how these findings would help us get to the moon or discover the creation of the earth
2. Why is the topography so different on one side verses the other
1. I learned that the dark side of the moon had never been fully analyzed.