Sentences with phrase «more craters on the moon»

The seismographs left on the moon's surface by the Apollo astronauts and the gravity measurements of the 1998 Lunar Prospector probe have provided enough data to explain why there are many more craters on the moon's far side than on the near side.

Not exact matches

Since the 1960's scientists thought that only in permanently shadowed areas in craters near the lunar poles was it cold enough to accumulate this volatile material, but recent observations by a number of spacecraft, including LRO, suggest that hydrogen on the moon is more widespread.

In that sense, the researchers say, the moon is unique: Its craters are constantly erased by the solar system's most relentless volcanic activity — 25 times more frequent than that seen on Earth — which adds an estimated 1 centimeter of fresh material to Io's surface each year.

The kind of asteroid needed to form the Martian dichotomy would fall in between that size and those of the rocks that formed other large craters, such as the South Pole — Aitken impact basin on the moon and the Hellas Basin in Mars's southern hemisphere, both more than 1,30 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide.

Large craters cover more of the moon's surface on its nearside than its farside, according to new maps from NASA's GRAIL spacecrafts.

Maps from the GRAIL spacecrafts reveal more large craters (big circles) and thinner crust (blue) on the moon's nearside (left) than on the farside (right), where the crust is thicker (red).

The strong reflection seen on Mercury is too large to be caused by a momentary «glint» off a crater wall, and when studied in more detail, shares the characteristics of reflections from the water ice seen on Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter.