Ancient volcanic heat may have shaped the moon from the inside out, keeping one side thinner, warmer and more geologically active than the other, a new study suggests.
The moon's nearside is scarred by massive impact basins, while its farside features far fewer and smaller basins, and a significantly thicker crust — an imbalance that has puzzled scientists for decades. Over the years, researchers have proposed various theories to explain this asymmetry, ranging from tidal heating caused by the moon's orbit around Earth to a giant early collision that reshaped its internal structure. But there has been no clear evidence pointing to a mechanism capable of driving such uneven evolution, perhaps until now.
