How would the surface of the moon look different if the crust on the other side?

Further examination reveals a strange anomaly: the crust on the far side is much thicker than it is on the near side. That explains the lack of maria; the thicker crust means it was harder for giant shocks to pierce the crust and cause darker basaltic lava to bubble up.

How does the far side of the Moon differ from the near side?

Earth's Moon has a 'near side' that always faces Earth, and a 'far side' that always faces away from Earth. Earth ended up being the largest daughter of this collision and retained enough heat to become tectonically active. The moon, being smaller, probably cooled more quickly and "froze" geologically.

Why is the crust thicker on the far side of the Moon than on the near side?

why is the crust thicker on the far side of the moon than on the near side? A. Due to asteroid impacts on the near side, the crust is not as thick as the other side. due to the gravitational pull of both the sun and the earth, the rocky material was pushed to the other side of the moon, thus creating a thicker crust.

What are the theories as to why the side of the moon facing Earth has a thinner crust?

The most plausible explanation seems to be that the asteroid impacts were the same size on both sides, but the side facing Earth remained softer for longer after the formation of the moon, and therefore was more likely to have large lava flows after large impacts – and this resulted in a somewhat smoother surface.

Why does the moon have another side?

Tidal forces from Earth have slowed the Moon's rotation to the point where the same side always faces Earth—a phenomenon called tidal locking. The other face, most of which is never visible from Earth, is therefore called the "far side of the moon".

Does the moon have 2 sides?

The two hemispheres of the Moon have distinctly different appearances, with the near side covered by multiple, large maria (Latin for 'sea', as the earliest astronomers mistakenly believed these plains to be seas of lunar water). The other side has a bruised, densely cratered appearance with few maria.

Do we ever see both sides of the Moon?

Since the Earth is much larger than the Moon, the Moon's rotation is slowed until it reaches a balance point. As this NASA animation shows (right), this means that the same part of the Moon always faces Earth, and we can never see the far side.

Why is the other side of the Moon thinner?

Research suggests that when the lunar crust floated on a sea of molten rock, tidal effects caused distortions that were later frozen solid. This graphic (not to scale) shows that the Moon's crust is thickest on the central far side and thins toward the north pole in a manner described by a simple mathematical formula.

Which part of the Moon has the thickest crust?

This graphic (not to scale) shows that the Moon's crust is thickest on the central far side and thins toward the north pole in a manner described by a simple mathematical formula.

Why does the Moon look different from Earth?

But when you approach the Moon from the near side, the Earth is in the way, and that it can either absorb these impacts or gravitationally deflect the potential impactors away from the Moon.

What does the moon look like at 40 degrees N?

At 40 degrees N latitude, the moon may be approximately 27 to 73 degrees from the southern horizon. (These numbers are when the Moon is on the meridian.) The accuracy of extending such a short line over such a long distance will be very low.