The bishop of Orlando is also bishop of the moon, due to a canon law that says “any newly discovered territory would fall under the bishopric from whence the discovering expedition departed.” His is therefore the largest Catholic diocese, at over 14,000,000 square miles.
Scientists Discovered a Giant Structure Under the Surface of the Moon
Space keeps getting less and less mysterious every day, doesn’t it?
This most recent discovery concerns the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon, one of the largest preserved impact craters in the Solar System. The US and China, among others, have been particularly interested in the area, and now NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission has discovered something truly massive beneath it.
: "I'm coming out I want the world to know Got to let it show! 
" Stepping out on the world stage tonight is the final & brightest #supermoon for 2019. Just in time for the first day of spring, venture outside and look up to the night's sky for one of our favorite celestial neighbors. In this photo, a plane is seen flying in front of the second full moon for the month of July on Friday, July 31, 2015 in Arlington, Va. Photo Credit: NASA/Joel KowskyThe structure weighs 2.18 billion kilograms and stretches more than 186 miles deep, suggesting that it might be leftover from the asteroid that formed the crater, says lead author Peter B. James.
“Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That’s roughly how much unexpected mass we detected.”
The mission was out to measure subtle changes in the gravitational field of the moon, then use the observations to study the moon’s internal composition, but what they discovered was a surprise to everyone involved.
“When we combined that [data] with lunar topography data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we discovered the unexpectedly large amount of mass hundreds of miles underneath the South Pole-Aitken basin. One of the explanations of this extra mass is that the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the Moon’s mantle.”
The team isn’t sure exactly what they’ve found at this point, though computer simulations indicate it is possible that when an asteroid hit the moon roughly 4 billion years ago it embedded itself in the mantle, never sinking into the moon’s core.
Credit: NASA/Ernie Wright #nasa #space #moon #lro #blue #pictureoftheday #science #solarsystem #universe #wow #beautiful #moonlight #clairdelune #apollo11Another theory is that the mass formed when the moon was still solidifying – as the magma of the moon cooled and hardened, perhaps a concentration of oxides may have developed.
More research will follow, but anything we learn from the unique basin should help scientists understand how and when the moon formed, as well as give us an idea as to how it might weather an impact from an asteroid in the future.
And when it comes to space, the more information we have, the better.
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9+ Interesting Facts About the Moon
Do you ever just look up at that big cheese and sky and think? I know I do.
That’s why there’s so many songs, poems, books, etc. about that big ol’ moon in the sky. Feast your eyes on these 10 facts.
1. Compass
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2. Whoopee!
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3. Full moon
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4. Sex on the moon
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5. Vader vs. Pac-Man
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6. Fly me to the moon
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7. Interesting…
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8. Let’s get going!
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9. An amazing feat
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10. Quite a trip
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In 1953, an amateur astronomer saw and photographed…
In 1953, an amateur astronomer saw and photographed a bright white light on the lunar surface. He believed it was a rare asteroid impact, but professional astronomers dismissed and disputed “Stuart’s Event” for 50 years. In 2003, NASA looked for and found the crater.
Planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker is the only human in history…
Planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker is the only human in history to have their ashes buried on the moon.