Exoplanets Explain Why the 'Dark Side' of the Moon Has No Face

Heat radiating from the young Earth could help solve the more than 50-year-old mystery of why the far side of the moon, which faces away from Earth, lacks the dark, vast expanses of volcanic rock that define the face of the Man in the Moon as seen from Earth, researchers say.

The Man in the Moon was born when cosmic impacts struck the near side of the moon, the side that faces Earth. These collisions punched holes in the moon's crust, which later filled with vast lakes of lava that formed the dark areas known as maria or "seas."

In 1959, when the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 transmitted the first images of the "dark" or far side of the moon, the side facing away from Earth, scientists immediately noticed fewer maria there. This mystery — why no Man in the Moon exists on the moon's far side — is called the Lunar Farside Highlands Problem Read more...