The Dark Side of the Moon

The Moon, no matter what Pink Floyd says, doesn’t have a dark side…unless, of course, you count the inside. All of our telescopes and cameras see only the light reflected off of the surface, leaving the vast interior of the Earth’s Moon unseen. But by measuring the slight irregularities in the Moon’s gravity field, we are able to probe its interior structure from the surface to the core. In 2012, NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission orbited the Moon and mapped its gravity field in unprecedented detail, revealing some incredible surprises lurking beneath the lunar surface. Dr. Andrews-Hanna will discuss GRAIL and what it has revealed about Earth’s closest neighbor.