A Lone Mountain on a Moon

in science •  7 years ago 

Moons often have interesting features, some have a massive one





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This picture is of Mimas, a moon of Saturn. This picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft using its narrow-angle lense, which focuses on wavelengths of ultraviolet at around 338 nanometers.

The most striking feature on the moon is the massive crater, which is over 130 kilometers wide. It nearly stretches around one third of the diameter of the planet. The mountain is almost as tall as mount Everest here on Earth.[1][2]

Asteroids smash into moons all the time. Unlike Earth, the craters do not erode away. This is because there is no atmosphere and no molant core on most moons. This means that the wind or water can not erode it and there is no plate tectonics to melt and “renew” the surface. This means that the craters on the surface are often the legacy of the entire life of the moon.




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That's cool!

Classic planetary scientist joke:

I was thinking about that and decided to avoid it, but here it is already lmao.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Yeah, it was a too common and easy joke, sorry for destroying the seriousness of the post :P

Definitely worth an upvote and a resteem :)

  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment
  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment
  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment

don't bother he's crazy

Yep, that is the typical explanation for the flat bottom shape.
But the real kicker is then, why do secondary meteors love to hit exactly on the rim of the previous craters? And electric machining shows that, and exactly that phenomena repeatedly.

Also, their formulas of how you get a circle from an off angle strike do not really add up. It could happen that way, but all the ballistic impact evidence I have seen never does that. But, hey, it could be because of atmosphere.

Really @anarchyhasnogods?
Downvotes for competing theories. Sheeesh.
Way to encourage conversation there.

downvotes for blatant lies to promote a theory*