Researchers from the University of California published a new study in the journal Nature using advanced laser technology to smooth over the craggy lunar surface (one of the traditional difficulties in accurately measuring the Moon) concluding that our satellite is 'surprisingly distorted'.
Like our own planet, the Moon has an equatorial bulge and is slightly flattened on the top and bottom - but unlike the Earth this paunch is only on one side. 'Like a lemon with an equatorial bulge,' said Professor Ian Garrick-Bethell, a planetary scientists and author of the study.
However, while the Earth's oblate spheroid shape is explained by the vast rotational forces as it spins on its axis (it turns at around 1000 miles an hour) the Moon barely spins at all - so why is it so lumpy?
Other explanations for the lemon-shape also have to be thrown out. The Moon is too far away from the Earth to be affected by tidal forces and it has no plate tectonics that might have rucked up its surface.
For an explanation, Professor Garrick-Bethell and his team had to return to the Moon's formation - an event known as the Big Splash which occurred around 4.5 billion years ago when an unknown body collided with the Earth, flinging up vast amounts of debris to be snared by our planet's gravity and that slowly formed into the Moon we see today.
At this point in time only the surface of the Moon would have been solid - a thin crust floating upon a viscous goop of melted rock. It would also have been much closer to the Earth and spinning faster as a result of the planetary impact.
If you combine all these factors, says the Professor, you have a decent explanation for its shape - as it spun and cooled it bulged in the middle like a spinning water balloon, moving slowly away from the Earth and eventually freezing into its current shape.
It just goes to show that there's nothing like those wild early years to leave a lasting impression on a body.
Entities 0 Name: Moon Count: 7 1 Name: Earth Count: 6 2 Name: University of California Count: 1 3 Name: Professor Garrick-Bethell Count: 1 4 Name: Ian Garrick-Bethell Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1zxShdp Title: Scientists discover the moon is shaped like a lemon Description: Although our visit to its rocky surface confirmed that it's not covered in vast seas, it's not home to strange moon-men, and it's not made of cheese, the moon can still surprise us. It's only this week that scientists have revealed that, 45 years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the planetoid, our closest celestial neighbor is not actually round.
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