Huge Indiana Jones rumbling Moon billiard potted in crater

[The Straight Story]

Huge Indiana Jones rumbling Moon billiard potted in crater

Pic A gigantic rumbling stone ball as big as a three-storey house has thundered across the surface of the moon, smashing through a crater wall before coming to rest deep in the lunar pockmark's interior.
LRO imagery of a boulder trail ending in a crater. Credit: LROC

In the end the Clangers' lids just weren't strong enough.

The lunar juggernaut's epic career of destruction is revealed in this snap from a NASA survey spacecraft in low orbit around the Moon. It shows how the huge, 10m tall Indiana Jones-esque boulder bounced and ploughed (soundlessly of course on the airless moon) down a slope. Just as it was coming to rest it found itself teetering on the edge of a small 60m crater like a billiard ball on the lip of the pocket - and then it fell in.

The pic, from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is part of a huge and detailed lunar survey now underway. This has also seen other interesting events like the famous polar bombing mission in search of possible lunar iceberg mines, and the discovery of two long-lost Soviet nuclear/solar moon rovers - one of them nowadays owned by a wealthy games developer.

Rolling boulders of the sort seen above are reckoned interesting among selenologists as their original positions can often be identified by backtracking along the trail they leave. One such boulder was sampled during the Apollo 17 landing and then so backtracked, apparently furnishing some handy gen on rock formations up the slope.

The renewed modern surveys have come about because it was planned under the previous US administration that humans would return to the moon in the near future, as a precursor to voyages to Mars and the asteroids.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/24/moon_juggernaut/

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Birdie!

[Brickbat]

2. God, I hate shitty headlines and useless pop-culture references.

This is a fascinating story and all I can do is sit there and go, wait, Indiana Jones on the moon? Billiards? WTF?

Not a dig at the OP.

[Hugabear]

3. If it had just said "giant boulder rolls across surface of moon", would it have been as interesting?

Maybe for those who are already into science. But most people would have seen that headline and not even clicked on it. By presenting it in a manner that a lot more people can identify and relate to, then more people will read the story. Getting more people interested in science isn't really a bad thing.

[Barack_America]

8. It would've made a lot more sense. nt

[Brickbat]

10. Absolutely.

Because it begs questions such as, why is it moving? Is this common? How far did it go?

Mixing metaphors in a headline ("Indiana Jones," "billiards") is just stupid, because then you have three things the reader has to decode -- the two metaphors and what the actual story is about.

I agree with you about getting people interested in science. But stupid, inaccurate come-ons (the "Indiana Jones" boulder was 7 meters, and the moon one is bigger) don't do anybody any favors.

[Webster Green]

9. There was no way I could not click on this thread.

The subject line was irresistible. :shrug:

[Brickbat]

11. Well, I usually click on incomprehensible subject lines on this site too.

[MineralMan]

4. It' s more like it skipped, rather than rolled.

Notice the decreasing distance between each impression as it neared that crater.

I'm thinking that whatever this thing was, it hit the moon at a very shallow angle, and skipped its way to a stop. I'd like to follow the path further back, visually.

Think of skipping a flat stone on the water, and you'll see what I mean.

[Fumesucker]

5. Lunar gravity is fairly low and that thing doesn't look all that round..

I'm not surprised it did some skipping..

You're right, it would be interesting to see the rest of the trail it left..

I wonder how long ago this happened?

[MineralMan]

6. Pretty much no way to know the age of the track.

No atmosphere, so no weathering. Fascinating, though. It would have been something to see, though.

[Fumesucker]

7. With a high enough resolution it could be roughly determined..

By the number of micrometeorite craters in the track..