Earthlings have the opportunity to observe only one hemisphere of the Moon – and selenography was engaged in it until 1959. Mountains, seas, fissures, faults, craters – these selenological formations might be easily observed since the 17th century thanks to the invention of the telescope.
Studying the Moon as an object relatively close to the Earth, scientists have recently paid special attention to the “dark” side of the satellite, which is not visible to earthlings. For many years, people have wanted to know what is on it and what are its features relative to the side turned towards us.
The mysterious side of the Earth’s satellite was actively investigated by Soviet scientists. In 1959 AMS “Luna-3” took pictures of her and published them. It was the USSR that stood at the origins of this trend in science! Thanks to the obtained images, the first satellite globe was created. Over time, there were more photographs, but they only raised new questions that concern people today. NASA employees were able to identify the difference in the thickness of the lunar surface: the crust of the hidden hemisphere is thicker by a couple of tens of kilometers.
In addition, scientists have found that the surface of this side is partly composed of other rocks, which prompted scientists to new thoughts. Scientists have suggested that the Moon might once collide with a large asteroid or other satellite of the Earth, as a result of which the mantle was on the surface.
There are so-called seas on the Moon, formed following basaltic lava eruptions: there are two of them – the Moscow Sea and the Dream Sea. In addition to them, there are also small “marine” areas. Also, the “dark” hemisphere of the Moon was more often subjected to meteorite impacts: this is evidenced by the results of many studies.
People are still asking questions regarding the reasons for such a difference between the lunar sides. For some time now, Chinese scientists have also been actively interested in this: they took new photographs and studied the composition of the mysterious hemisphere in more depth.
Secrets of the Moon
At the beginning of 2019, a “Chanye-4” – a probe developed by engineers from China and became the first apparatus on the mysterious hemisphere. The lunar rover was delivered there “Yutu-2”: it was equipped with a video camera, a spectrometer for studying minerals and a radar designed for studying the soil.
Lunokhod, among other things, made it possible to determine the influence of the solar wind on the surface of the Moon. This was a new stage in the study of space. The study of the Von Karman crater (the most poorly explored area) is the main task of the apparatus.
As a result of the research, it turned out that the surface of the “dark” hemisphere turned out to be porous. At a depth of 24 to 40 m, a cobblestone was found, similar in composition to the sand we are used to. Presumably this layer was formed from fragments of rocks that were mixed and erupted from nearby craters. But, interestingly, basaltic lava was not found there.
Chang’e 4 delivered a small container of potatoes there to grow on the Moon. This was preceded by the experience of growing potato and other crops in soil that corresponds to the surface of the satellite.
