There is a stark contrast between the Moon’s aspect that we see from Earth and the one it conceals from us. The lunar mare, the pitch-black leftovers of previous lava streams, dominates the nearside. Large-scale mare characteristics are absent on the crater-pocked far end. There are many mysteries about the Moon, but one of them is why the opposing sides are so dissimilar.
The two-faced Moon may have a greater context, one that involves a massive impact that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago near the southern pole of the Luna.
According to a recent research published in Science Advances, there was an enormous surge of heat generated by the collision that produced the Moon’s South Pole–Aitken (SPA) region. To the Moon’s nearside, the plumes would have transported rare-earth & heat-producing substances. The nearside lava plains were formed as a result of volcanism fueled by a preponderance of these components.
Future missions will also show changes in the geochemical makeup of the volcanic deposits. Potassium (K), REE, phosphorus, and heat-generating elements such as thorium may be found in a structural abnormality on the nearside designated as the PKT.
The scientists ran computer models to determine how temperature created by a big impact might modify systems of circulation in the Moon’s core and how this would rearrange KREEP materials in the lunar mantle as part of their study.
The model predicts that KREEP would have been like a surfer riding the heat surge from the SPA blast region. Material from the Moon’s interior was finally transferred to the Moon’s nearside when the heat plume extended under the lunar crust.
A viable solution for some of the Moon’s greatest persistent riddles, according to academics, has been discovered through their investigation.
