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Old 08-08-2010, 08:45 AM
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CraigS
Unpredictable

CraigS is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,023
Actually, there's lots of interesting anomalies about the moon.

Eg: 1) Mascons:

"The gravitational field of the Moon has been measured through tracking the Doppler shift of radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The main lunar gravity features are mascons, large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins, partly caused by the dense mare basaltic lava flows that fill these basins. These anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon. There are some puzzles: lava flows by themselves cannot explain all of the gravitational signature, and some mascons exist that are not linked to mare volcanism."

I've read, (but this may be an urban myth), that this is why so many early survey satellites crashed .. ie: because, at the time, no-one knew when to counteract the effect of gravitational variations in the satellites' orbits as they flew over.

2) Density
Perhaps also a myth: {NASA left behind seismometers with the moon landings. They intentionally de-orbited a satellite which had reached the end of its 'use by date' and crashed it so they could get the results from the seismometer. Apparently, the moon 'rang like a bell' for a good hour or so}.

This may not actually be a myth because "The Moon is the second densest satellite in the Solar System after Io. However, the core of the Moon is small, with a radius of about 350 km or less. This is only ~20% the size of the Moon, in contrast to the ~50% of most other terrestrial bodies." Which would make for a nice bell in space !

(Quotes from Wiki).

....Interesting ....

Cheers
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