Scientists have made an interesting discovery about our favourite natural satellite.
It might not be news to everyone, but this week scientists have made a startling announcement. It turns out the the moon doesn't in fact hit your eye like a big pizza pie, it's really a bit more like a lemon, because the moon is not actually round.
According to The Verge, the latest study conducted by Ian Garrick-Bethell and a team at the University of California Santa Cruz not only found out that the moon is a different shape than we think, but they also found out why it looks like that.
The study, which is published in full in Nature, states that the moon is like "a lemon with an equatorial bulge" and compares it to a water balloon that flattens out as it spins. The reason for all this is to do with tidal cooling, and dates back quite a ways to the formation of the satellite.
It seems that orbital friction between the Earth and the moon caused the crust on the moon to expand in, essentially, waves in certain places, and as it moved further away from Earth and slowed down its rotation, one of those waves stuck, and formed the wider section in the middle.Obviously, the moon's mother never told it that if the wind blows and/or the process of orbital friction decreases as a result of your rotation slowing, then you'll be stuck like that.
We're not quite sure how this affects your life really, but it should probably make you question everything you know.
Via The Verge
