Why does the moon have impact craters?
« on: March 22, 2021, 09:48:42 PM »

I searched for "crater" in the wiki, but I couldn't find any threads about moon craters (maybe I just need a wiki lesson). If previous posters have already asked this, perhaps someone could direct me.

Anyway, the moon clearly has impact craters, which comports with the whole RE/the-universe-exists side of the argument. How does FET explain them?
Devout and strictly adherent Atheist.

Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2021, 09:58:15 PM »
It is presumed that the moon has impact craters, much the same as the craters we find on earth are presumed to be caused by impact events (there is almost no reason to suspect this).

As the moon is magically locked to the earth, and we only see the one "side" of it - this explanation doesn't hold water - which has been pointed out by many astronomers over time.

It is again PRESUMED that the moon wasn't always magically locked to the earth the way it is now, but we have no evidence to support these assertions.  They are mythological in origin, not scientific.

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Offline WTF_Seriously

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2021, 09:59:48 PM »
It is presumed that the moon has impact craters, much the same as the craters we find on earth are presumed to be caused by impact events (there is almost no reason to suspect this).


Please enlighten us on how they were created.
Flat-Earthers seem to have a very low standard of evidence for what they want to believe but an impossibly high standard of evidence for what they don’t want to believe.

Lee McIntyre, Boston University

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Offline WTF_Seriously

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2021, 10:05:42 PM »

I searched for "crater" in the wiki, but I couldn't find any threads about moon craters (maybe I just need a wiki lesson). If previous posters have already asked this, perhaps someone could direct me.

Anyway, the moon clearly has impact craters, which comports with the whole RE/the-universe-exists side of the argument. How does FET explain them?

Crap flying around in the sky and impacting other crap wouldn't necessarily be ruled out in a FE model.  It just flies around differently.
Flat-Earthers seem to have a very low standard of evidence for what they want to believe but an impossibly high standard of evidence for what they don’t want to believe.

Lee McIntyre, Boston University

Offline scomato

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2021, 10:54:00 PM »

I searched for "crater" in the wiki, but I couldn't find any threads about moon craters (maybe I just need a wiki lesson). If previous posters have already asked this, perhaps someone could direct me.

Anyway, the moon clearly has impact craters, which comports with the whole RE/the-universe-exists side of the argument. How does FET explain them?

Crap flying around in the sky and impacting other crap wouldn't necessarily be ruled out in a FE model.  It just flies around differently.

What would be the effect of a massive asteroid impact on a Flat, disc-shaped Earth? Would it knock the FE off axis, or cause the Flat Earth to flip upside down?

If there is a Universal Acceleration acting upon the entire Flat Earth, an asteroid knocking Earth even a little bit off level would cause the destruction of everything. The oceans would spill away while the rest of the Earth's mass landslides off the rim into space.

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Offline Iceman

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2021, 11:19:20 PM »
It is presumed that the moon has impact craters, much the same as the craters we find on earth are presumed to be caused by impact events (there is almost no reason to suspect this).

As the moon is magically locked to the earth, and we only see the one "side" of it - this explanation doesn't hold water - which has been pointed out by many astronomers over time.

It is again PRESUMED that the moon wasn't always magically locked to the earth the way it is now, but we have no evidence to support these assertions.  They are mythological in origin, not scientific.

[Citation needed]

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Offline JSS

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2021, 11:32:27 PM »
It is presumed that the moon has impact craters, much the same as the craters we find on earth are presumed to be caused by impact events (there is almost no reason to suspect this).

As the moon is magically locked to the earth, and we only see the one "side" of it - this explanation doesn't hold water - which has been pointed out by many astronomers over time.

It is again PRESUMED that the moon wasn't always magically locked to the earth the way it is now, but we have no evidence to support these assertions.  They are mythological in origin, not scientific.

Nothing magical about it, it's a natural, logical consequence of a large body like the moon rotating as it orbits.  Tidal forces and friction will eventually slow it's rotation until it is tidally locked as it is now. It's all very simple and easy to understand, actually.

I'm not aware of any modern astronomers who have a problem with tidally locked bodies and how they become that way.  Which astronomers are you referring to?

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Offline Tumeni

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2021, 12:14:45 AM »
It is presumed that the moon has impact craters, much the same as the craters we find on earth are presumed to be caused by impact events (there is almost no reason to suspect this).

There is reason. Real-life observation of meteors, for one. Analysis of deposits within craters. etc etc

As the moon is magically locked to the earth, and we only see the one "side" of it - this explanation doesn't hold water

Why not? What has locking of Moon orbit to Earth got to do with it, and why would that locking dispel the above explanations?

which has been pointed out by many astronomers over time.

Which ones?
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Offline scomato

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2021, 01:02:22 AM »
They must be impact craters, because we have already observed new impact sites being created.



This is a before and after image (first image in Oct 2012 and the second, now showing a crater, in April 2013) revealing the appearance of a new 39-foot-wide (12 meter) crater on the surface of the moon.

Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2021, 03:12:23 AM »
Nothing magical about it, it's a natural, logical consequence of a large body like the moon rotating as it orbits.  Tidal forces and friction will eventually slow it's rotation until it is tidally locked as it is now. It's all very simple and easy to understand, actually.

Last I checked it was absolutely an anomaly, with no other observable or observed examples.  We can observe things that appear to have their own moons, but none are "locked" by magic.  Of course you can speculate that that is due to lack of liquid water, but this is a wild speculation (on top of centuries of them).

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I'm not aware of any modern astronomers who have a problem with tidally locked bodies and how they become that way.  Which astronomers are you referring to?

It's not about the tidal locking, it's about the impact craters.  There would be expected to be far fewer (especially large ones) as the face (presumed to be riddled with them) is always towards the earth.  So the musing goes.  Astronomy is (largely, not entirely) pseudoscience, as you know.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2021, 07:41:20 AM by jack44556677 »

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Offline Tumeni

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2021, 07:33:05 AM »
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I'm not aware of any modern astronomers who have a problem with tidally locked bodies and how they become that way.  Which astronomers are you referring to?

It's not about the tidal locking, it's about the impact craters.  There would be expected to be far fewer (especially large ones) as the face (presumed to be riddled with them) is always towards the earth.

Why would that inhibit large meteors?

You're surely not falling back on the old chestnut that "the Earth would be in the way", are you?
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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2021, 07:45:33 AM »
@tumeni

They are, yes.  I didn't say any of their musings were reasonable, just that they have them.

The moon constantly has a "blocker", unless you think the impact craters are from things launched out of volcanoes - etc.

It is not that things COULDN'T hit the moon, it is that we might expect them (when musing upon it) to do so with some difficulty (significantly less frequency than without a blocker) and at angles that would tend not to be perpendicular to the plane of the surface.

What are your contrary musings (just out of curiosity)?

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Offline Tumeni

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2021, 08:49:57 AM »
@tumeni

They are, yes.  I didn't say any of their musings were reasonable, just that they have them.

The moon constantly has a "blocker", unless you think the impact craters are from things launched out of volcanoes - etc.

It is not that things COULDN'T hit the moon, it is that we might expect them (when musing upon it) to do so with some difficulty (significantly less frequency than without a blocker) and at angles that would tend not to be perpendicular to the plane of the surface.

What are your contrary musings (just out of curiosity)?

If you don't think someone else's 'musings' are reasonable, why quote them at us as though you think they are?

Taking the textbook size and distance of Earth and Moon, the Earth hardly blocks anything at all. The angular size of the Earth when seen from the Moon is approx. two degrees, leaving (360 minus 2 =) 358 degrees of 'sky', in all planes, from which meteors could approach it. The Earth forms no significant obstacle to this.

You're presuming that all meteors arrive perpendicular to the surface. Not so. The meteor can hit at any angle, it's the force of the shockwave generated by the impact that forms the hemispherical crater. The shockwave propagates evenly out from the impact site, yielding a well-formed hemisphere in the surface. It's the same with any large explosion on Earth, and most apparent in the numerous videos of the recent explosion on the docks in Beirut. You can clearly see a hemispherical shock wave emanating from the blast site. Meteor impacts on the Moon exhibit the same behaviour. 
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Offline JSS

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2021, 12:15:21 PM »
Nothing magical about it, it's a natural, logical consequence of a large body like the moon rotating as it orbits.  Tidal forces and friction will eventually slow it's rotation until it is tidally locked as it is now. It's all very simple and easy to understand, actually.

Last I checked it was absolutely an anomaly, with no other observable or observed examples.  We can observe things that appear to have their own moons, but none are "locked" by magic.  Of course you can speculate that that is due to lack of liquid water, but this is a wild speculation (on top of centuries of them).

Why would I speculate that the lack of water is a reason?  I never said any such thing, please refrain from such obvious straw-man arguments.

As for there being no other examples, there are.  Mercury is tidally locked with the sun.

Pluto and Charon are tidally locked.

All the large moons of Jupiter are tidally locked.

In fact, it looks like tidally locked moons is quite common, not at all an anomaly. Please cite your sources if you are going to insist otherwise. Where exactly are you checking?

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I'm not aware of any modern astronomers who have a problem with tidally locked bodies and how they become that way.  Which astronomers are you referring to?

It's not about the tidal locking, it's about the impact craters.  There would be expected to be far fewer (especially large ones) as the face (presumed to be riddled with them) is always towards the earth.  So the musing goes.  Astronomy is (largely, not entirely) pseudoscience, as you know.

I asked which modern astronomers are claiming this, do you have any names or sources?

As for the impact craters, are you aware of how far the moon is from the Earth?  At 250,000 miles away, the Earth would only block a tiny, tiny fraction of any asteroids coming at the near side.  This is only a problem if you don't understand the scale and angles involved. 

Again, please cite your source of modern astronomers claiming the near side of the moon should have less impact craters due to the Earth getting in the way. Where are you reading this?

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Offline Tumeni

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Re: Why does the moon have impact craters?
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2021, 12:54:26 PM »
Last I checked it was absolutely an anomaly, with no other observable or observed examples.

What form did this "check" take?

What did you actually do, what did you look at, to determine such an absence of "observable or observed examples" ...?
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Nearly all flat earthers agree the earth is not a globe.

Nearly?