Moon's Strange Bulge Finally Explained (Space.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Sara Goudarzi
Staff Writer
posted: 03 August 2006
02:10 pm ET

An eccentric orbit in the Moon's distant past might be responsible for the mysterious bulge around its middle, scientists say.

The excess material around the lunar equator has been known since 1799 when French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace first noticed it. The reason, however, has been a mystery until now.

The Moon's peculiar shape can be explained if the satellite moved in an eccentric oval-shaped orbit 100 million years after its violent formation, when the satellite hadn't yet solidified, the researchers say.

It was like a big ball of molasses and all around the equator it got deformed, study team member Ian Garrick-Bethell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told SPACE.com.

Around that time, conditions, such as orbit shape and position, were optimal for this "ball of molasses" to cool down and become the solid moon that we now know.
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more: http://space.com/scienceastronomy/060803_moon_shape.html

So "fill dump from the alien base" is no longer an active hypothesis ?

[Sanity Claws]

1. So glad to hear it's not pregnant!

I think one moon is enough.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. And all this time...

I thought it was just sitting up there, drinking beer.

[mitchtv]

6. drinking beer, and,

Popping Viagra (said bulge)

[left is right]

3. I didn't look before I clicked

I thought I was going to read something about that rightwing, fat f### Moon of the washington Post. You can imagine my surprize as adsolutley nothing I was reading made any sense, at first.

[damntexdem]

4. Oh, I just thought that the Moon was getting on in age.

That causes bulges around the middle of many of us, after all.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. 4.6 billion years young!

I know what you mean. As I get older, I'm starting to realize that denial is underappreciated.

[tanyev]

5. Now they can work on explaining the mysterious bulge on GWB's back

during the debates.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. What hump?

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Well, he also had an eccentric orbit in his younger days.

:evilgrin: Oh, excuse me! Those were "youthful indiscretions".

[Mabus]

9. No longer an active hypothesis

but its still on the table. It just got moved to the backburner for now.

In other words, "Don't give up hope!"