Eldorado Posted June 11, 2019 #1 Share Posted June 11, 2019 "A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar system—the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin—and may contain metal from the asteroid that crashed into the Moon and formed the crater, according to a Baylor University study. ""Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected," said lead author Peter B. James, Ph.D., assistant professor of planetary geophysics in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences." Full report at Phys Org: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-mass-anomaly-moon-largest-crater.html At Science Alert: https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-huge-unexplained-mass-under-a-giant-crater-on-the-moon "Deep Structure of the Lunar South Pole‐Aitken Basin" Research letter abstract at AGU 100: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL082252 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OverSword Posted June 11, 2019 #2 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Isn't that where the US intentionally crashed a probe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted June 11, 2019 #3 Share Posted June 11, 2019 2 hours ago, OverSword said: Isn't that where the US intentionally crashed a probe? Good call, but, for that MAJOR mass detected it begs in question just how a small probe can cause this extensive result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robotic Jew Posted June 11, 2019 #4 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Maybe that's where all of the planes and ships that teleport from the Bermuda triangle have been ending up??? 3 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclopes500 Posted June 11, 2019 #5 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Buried alien base or flying saucer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 11, 2019 #6 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Does anyone else think this new race to the moon is a bit wierd? A few years ago it was too expensive to go to the moon and now all of sudden were going to have a permanent base there? Someone found something that can make someone very rich. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted June 11, 2019 #7 Share Posted June 11, 2019 2 hours ago, hereticspl said: Does anyone else think this new race to the moon is a bit wierd? No. 2 hours ago, hereticspl said: A few years ago it was too expensive to go to the moon A few years ago the hugely expensive space shuttle hadn't been grounded, freeing up a large part of NASA's budget, nor had China started showing an interest in the Moon. Given the rivalry between the U.S. and China we now have a similar situation to that which generated the first race to the Moon between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 12, 2019 #8 Share Posted June 12, 2019 4 hours ago, hereticspl said: Does anyone else think this new race to the moon is a bit wierd? A few years ago it was too expensive to go to the moon and now all of sudden were going to have a permanent base there? Someone found something that can make someone very rich. No 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qxcontinuum Posted June 12, 2019 #9 Share Posted June 12, 2019 Interesting discovery I remember that someone was once saying that moon it's a huge piece of metal empty in the inside. Can't remember exactly who said it and where Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripGun Posted June 12, 2019 #10 Share Posted June 12, 2019 What I think is there are instructions. How to assemble a futon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jowasmus Posted June 12, 2019 #11 Share Posted June 12, 2019 Nah, they just found the Transformers ship that crashed back in the stone age. Don't worry, Megatron will be here soon & Optimus will save the day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclopes500 Posted June 12, 2019 #12 Share Posted June 12, 2019 Grey moon soil, city built by non humans. Picture it without the humans in the photo and a hell of a lot bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 12, 2019 #13 Share Posted June 12, 2019 20 hours ago, Imaginarynumber1 said: No Every big leap forward in discovery and science is backed by someone who stands to make a profit from it. Thinking that much money is being poured into a project this risky without the promise of a huge payout is just naive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 12, 2019 #14 Share Posted June 12, 2019 2 minutes ago, hereticspl said: Every big leap forward in discovery and science is backed by someone who stands to make a profit from it. Thinking that much money is being poured into a project this risky without the promise of a huge payout is just naive. Quote Does anyone else think this new race to the moon is a bit wierd? No 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aardvark-DK Posted June 13, 2019 #15 Share Posted June 13, 2019 Relax, it's just the construction of a Starbucks, and a McDonalds....nothing too see there (yet), move along.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 14, 2019 #16 Share Posted June 14, 2019 On 13/06/2019 at 7:04 AM, Imaginarynumber1 said: No Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 14, 2019 #17 Share Posted June 14, 2019 1 hour ago, hereticspl said: Yes No. This new race to the moon, as you asked, does not seem weird. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 15, 2019 #18 Share Posted June 15, 2019 On 14/06/2019 at 3:36 PM, Imaginarynumber1 said: No. This new race to the moon, as you asked, does not seem weird. Maybe you stay more in the loop than I do. So what's the motivation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 15, 2019 #19 Share Posted June 15, 2019 47 minutes ago, hereticspl said: Maybe you stay more in the loop than I do. So what's the motivation? Waspie laid it out quite nicely in post #7 Quote A few years ago the hugely expensive space shuttle hadn't been grounded, freeing up a large part of NASA's budget, nor had China started showing an interest in the Moon. Given the rivalry between the U.S. and China we now have a similar situation to that which generated the first race to the Moon between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 15, 2019 #20 Share Posted June 15, 2019 59 minutes ago, Imaginarynumber1 said: Waspie laid it out quite nicely in post #7 So your saying we have the same situation as the cold war? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imaginarynumber1 Posted June 15, 2019 #21 Share Posted June 15, 2019 (edited) 13 minutes ago, hereticspl said: So your saying we have the same situation as the cold war? Similar in many ways. Not the same. Edited June 15, 2019 by Imaginarynumber1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted June 15, 2019 #22 Share Posted June 15, 2019 5 hours ago, hereticspl said: Maybe you stay more in the loop than I do. So what's the motivation? What, apart from mind numbingly obvious reasons such as the spirit of exploration, the science and the national prestige you mean? Here goes: Well there is the fact that the Moon is virtually unexplored. Samples have been returned from only 9 locations on the Moon (6 Apollo and 3 Soviet Luna missions). The landing sites had to be safe and easy to land and so where atypical of the Moon as a whole. In other words, although we know much more about the Moon than we did before Apollo we still no relatively little. Since understanding how the Moon formed is critical to understanding how the Earth formed and life originated further lunar exploration is of supreme interest to many scientists. Russia, China, Europe, Japan and India have all expressed interest in future exploration of the Moon. If the US wants to continue to be the dominant natio in space exploration it needs to be at the vanguard of such exploration. The USA is committed to sending astronauts to Mars. The Moon is an excellent place to learn the techniques to do that. Being closer to the Earth it is a safer place to learn these techniques and will reduce the risks in reaching Mars in the future. Some people, for example Stephen Hawking, believe that if we don't become a multi-planet species we risk extinction. The Moon is an excellent first step in that goal. People like Jeff Bezos foresee a future in which heavy industry is moved off the Earth and into space, where it can not pollute the planet. Mining the Moon would make such a venture cheaper. Some forms of nuclear fusion require Helium 3. This is rare on Earth and much more common on the Moon. Is that enough motivation to be getting on with? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted June 15, 2019 #23 Share Posted June 15, 2019 On 6/12/2019 at 10:01 PM, hereticspl said: Every big leap forward in discovery and science is backed by someone who stands to make a profit from it. Thinking that much money is being poured into a project this risky without the promise of a huge payout is just naive. Absolute drivel. Where was the profit in Arctic and Antarctic exploration? Where was the profit in climbing Everest? You need to stop projecting your materialism and lack of imagination on to the rest of humanity. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticspl Posted June 15, 2019 #24 Share Posted June 15, 2019 12 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said: Absolute drivel. Where was the profit in Arctic and Antarctic exploration? Where was the profit in climbing Everest? You need to stop projecting your materialism and lack of imagination on to the rest of humanity. Calm down princess your getting a bit worked up. Were talking about billions of dollars and that money has to come from somewhere. Imagine trying to source funding and your only pitch is do it for the greater good or for our sense of exploration you'll be laughed out of the boardroom. Getting this off the ground in that short a time frame means corporations are investing bucket loads of money and they dont just do that out of the goodness of their hearts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter B Posted June 16, 2019 #25 Share Posted June 16, 2019 56 minutes ago, hereticspl said: Calm down princess your getting a bit worked up. Were talking about billions of dollars and that money has to come from somewhere. Imagine trying to source funding and your only pitch is do it for the greater good or for our sense of exploration you'll be laughed out of the boardroom. Getting this off the ground in that short a time frame means corporations are investing bucket loads of money and they dont just do that out of the goodness of their hearts. The billions of dollars in private investment is coming from people like Elon Musk (PayPal) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). They have huge amounts of money available to indulge their interests, which for them is Space. And yes, they're doing it for profit as well as out of some greater personal interest. But yes, there's also a lot of ego involved too: if humanity spreads out across the Solar System in coming decades and centuries, the people who will be remembered as starting the process are going to be people like Musk and Bezos; I'm pretty sure Musk and Bezos are aware of this, and I suspect they're pretty satisfied with that thought. So why didn't private individuals do this earlier? Partly it's due to a lack of interest on the part of the people who were rich enough to do so in earlier decades. But partly it's because now the technology (both in computing and in materials) has advanced to the point that we can Do Stuff in space much more efficiently that we could do so in earlier decades. Hence the ability of the Falcon 9 first stages to fly back to Earth for reuse, something that was science fiction in the 1990s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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