Researchers Explain Why the Man in the Moon Faces Earth

[Klaatu]

http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/images2/2012030622250014w.jpg

Looking at the Man in the Moon: Researchers Explain Why the Man in the Moon Faces Earth

"Many of us see a man in the moon—a human face smiling down at us from the lunar surface. The "face," of course, is just an illusion, shaped by the dark splotches of lunar maria (smooth plains formed from the lava of ancient volcanic eruptions)."full article
http://www.sciencenewsline.com/space/2012030622250014.html

[StalinFanboy]

i dont see a face

[Decommissioner]

i dont see a face

I honestly could never see the face either, not matter how hard I looked for one.

[ColonelCossack]

I think the Mare Ibrium and the Mare Serenitatis are the eyes while the Oceanus Procellarum and the Mare Nubium are the mouth. Or at least that's what it looks like to me.

Helpful?

[ColonelCossack]

Oh and the Pennines are the nose

[Prometeo liberado]

I always thought that one of the Apollo missions carved out the face so that they could bring back some cheese.

[Klaatu]

The Man in the Moon (proof of the moon being made of green cheese... looks more like mozzarella)

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/associatedcontent/470_1288388.jpg

[Zav]

I see three skulls, not a smiling face.

[Drosophila]

This is news

[kitsune]

Well that's silly, there's no man in the moon. It's a rabbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit). Obviously.

That's very interesting. I was taught that it was a 50/50 chance of locking into synchronous orbit on either bulge, whichever one happened to be facing the earth when rotational speed slowed enough for that to occur, because that's when the torque that causes the slowing is lost. Like they say, though, that could still be the case depending on how long ago it happened, which makes me wonder when it did happen.