[cogitator]

Geology doesn't HAVE to be on the Earth.

[dirtboy]

Geology doesn't HAVE to be on the Earth.

Actually, from the root of the word, Geo, it does - this is lunology :^)

[Frank_Discussion]

Actually, I thought Geo means Earth, and Selene means Moon, so isn't the scientific term officially selenology? I thought I had heard this as fact somewhere...

[My2Cents]

Great report.

BTW, anyone have Stuart's original impact picture?

[cogitator]

*ping*

[eastsider]

That crater at the top looks like the man-in-the-moon's anus.

[Nick Danger]

OK, now they can explain this:

[sphinx]

Buratti and Johnson calculated the energy released at impact was about .5 megatons (35 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). They estimate such events occur on the lunar surface once every half-century.

Really? That would be a quite noticeable impact. If this is thought to occur once every 50 years on the moon, how often ought it to happen on earth? Even given that most asteroids would land in the ocean, I would think we'd have more of a record of observed collisions in historical times if something of this size is coming in every 50 years or so.

[capitan_refugio]

Since the root "geo" is Greek for "earth, ground, or soil," geology is by definition, the study of the Earth as defined in the rocks.

The newest branch of the science of geology is known as "exogeology." Exogeology is the study of planetary bodies outside of the earth. I first heard the term several years ago from a firnd who worked at the JPL in Pasadena, CA. He was working on the exogeoglogy of the moons of Jupiter. I thought that was pretty neat.

[sit-rep]

bttt...

[null and void]

If his theory was right, Dr. Leon Stuart would be the first and only human in history to witness and document the impact of an asteroid-sized body impacting the Moon's scarred exterior.

Ummmm, didn't a few monks in England report an impact on the moon's top "horn", the resulting shower of sparks, and the appearance (illusion) of the moon shuddering in the 1200's? IIRC this tracks with the location and estimated age/youth of the Tico crater...