Giant volcanoes may have caused the dark areas of the Moon.
Giant volcanoes may have caused the dark areas of the Moon.

Man in the Moon Mystery Solved

Scientists think they know why the Moon’s surface has dark shapes.

The surface of the Moon is covered with huge dark areas. Many people think they see a face of a man in the shapes. For years, scientists thought an asteroid had created the “man in the Moon.” On Wednesday, they announced a new idea.

So, what created the dark spot on the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum? It wasn’t a space rock slamming into the surface. Instead, it was probably a huge volcano! It likely flooded the Moon with lava about 4 billion years ago. That created the dark rock we see today.

Two spacecraft helped scientists make the discovery. The pair of spaceships, named GRAIL, studied the Moon’s shape and surface in 2012. Scientists noticed that the dark area was not the right shape for an asteroid crash. If an asteroid hit the Moon, it would make a crater in the shape of a circle. But its shape was a rectangle!

Maria Zuber from Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of the authors of the new report. She told the Washington Post that it was an important discovery. “For anyone who’s ever looked up at the Moon and wondered why it has this pattern on its surface — now we have an answer.”

Last updated: October 2, 2014, 5:00 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)

Giant volcanoes may have caused the dark areas of the Moon.
Giant volcanoes may have caused the dark areas of the Moon.

The surface of the Moon is covered with huge dark areas. Many people think they see a face of a man in the shapes. For years, scientists thought an asteroid had created the “man in the Moon.” On Wednesday, they announced a new idea.

So, what created the dark spot on the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum? It wasn’t a space rock slamming into the surface. Instead, it was probably a huge volcano! It likely flooded the Moon with lava about 4 billion years ago. That created the dark rock we see today.

Two spacecraft helped scientists make the discovery. The pair of spaceships, named GRAIL, studied the Moon’s shape and surface in 2012. Scientists noticed that the dark area was not the right shape for an asteroid crash. If an asteroid hit the Moon, it would make a crater in the shape of a circle. But its shape was a rectangle!

Maria Zuber from Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of the authors of the new report. She told the Washington Post that it was an important discovery. “For anyone who’s ever looked up at the Moon and wondered why it has this pattern on its surface — now we have an answer.”

Last updated: October 2, 2014, 5:00 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)

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