Flip-Flop: Did the Moon Do a Turnabout?
Friday, January 23, 2009 - 21:07
in Astronomy & Space
For thousands of years only one side of the moon was visible to humankind as a result of synchronous rotation, a sort of orbital lockstep that keeps the moon rotating once for every lap it takes around Earth. Astronomers had to settle for this near-side view until 1959, when a Soviet craft took the first photographs of the moon's far side. But could the view from Earth have been different early in lunar geologic history? [More]