# Everyone knows that the moon has craters, right? But when was the last one recorded? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807 "2021-04-11T17:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807/61 "2021-04-13T16:40:50Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The lunar meteorite NWA 11266: Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807/62 "2021-04-13T16:43:30Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > And if it came in at a very acute angle to the eg, 10˚ to the tangent, (ie, 80˚ to the perpendicular) would it “bounce” and breakup without much trace? At the kinds of speeds involved here, the mechanical strengths of the projectile and target are, relatively speaking, very minor factors. The behaviors of the two entities involved in such a collision can be more readily understood by thinking of them as fluids. This is why, for example, a remarkably blunt **[explosively-formed penetrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_formed_penetrator)** can get through thick tank armor. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807/63 "2021-04-13T16:47:08Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Thank you! If you want a slice of it, that hundred dollars a gram is actually orders of magnitude cheaper than what the earliest lunar meteorites sold for. (I have specimens of the moon and Mars that if I sneezed while handling them, I’d never see them again.) > **[NWA 11266 Official Lunar Feldspathic Regolith Breccia Meteorite 15.7g polished...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/NWA-11266-Official-Lunar-Feldspathic-Regolith-Breccia-Meteorite-15-7g-polished-/382214514907)** > > Classification: Lunar (feldspathic regolith breccia). NWA 11266 OFFICIAL. Petrography : (A. Irving and S. Kuehner,UWS ) Breccia composed of mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, exsolved pigeonite, orthopyroxene, augite, fayalite, Ti-chromite,... ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807/64 "2021-04-13T16:50:54Z")
That’s what I was going to say- although the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth due to tidal locking, it’s not always light or dark. And yes, astronauts and space probes have beheld the far side of the moon (again, not always light or dark, but always facing away). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807/65 "2021-04-13T20:28:27Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > You note that the tidal bulge on Earth is both on the side facing the moon, and also the side away from it? > > Tidal action is less about pulling, and more about squeezing. Yes, it’s mostly symmetric, but not quite completely. I’ve seen proposals that it’s the slight asymmetry in tidal effects that causes the mares, but I’m not sure if that can really account for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-knows-that-the-moon-has-craters-right-but-when-was-the-last-one-recorded/939807.md?page=3)