News:Earth's pull 'shaped Moon's surface'

12 November 2010 Last updated at 15:45 GMT
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News
The Earth may have played a major role in shaping the lunar surface, according to a new research study by US researchers.

The team members say our planet's gravitational pull distorted the shape of the Moon in ancient times.

This led to "bulging" at the equator and could explain why the far side is more elevated than the near side of the Moon even today.

Details of the study are published in the journal Science.

The far side of the Moon remains a mystery in many ways. Densely cratered, it has few of the volcanic plains that characterise the near side with which we are all familiar, and it is much higher - several kilometres higher in places.

Now the authors of a new study think they know why it might have become so high and are blaming the Earth.
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