China’s Rover Reveals Moon’s Hidden Depths

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-the-lunar-far-side-chinas-rover-reveals-moons-hidden-depths/

by ForFreedom • 7 years ago

102 5 7 years ago

scientificamerican.com

Cthulhu_• 7 years ago

"The Chang’e-4 mission appears to have found material excavated from a frozen magma ocean far below the lunar surface"

Rock. They found rock. No need to make water analogies for rock.

saagarjha• 7 years ago

“Ocean” is a commonly used term for large quantities of liquid. Calling the rock “a frozen magma ocean” is correct and descriptive.

dsfyu404ed• 7 years ago

There's a specific geological term for that (I forget what it is) but it doesn't sound as impressive as "magma ocean".

All non-sedimentary rock was liquid at some point. They did simply find rock. It just so happens that they think this rock is exposed rock from the mantle. It's not like some volcano farted this out and that's somehow interesting. The word "ocean" also carries a lot of connotations that are not really applicable to a bunch of hot rock that was exposed by an impact. It's not like this was some pool of lava that was sloshing around up there.

glaberficken• 7 years ago

It is not an analogy, but the standard nomenclature conventions when talking about the earth's moon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_mare

China’s Rover Reveals Moon’s Hidden Depths

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