Scientists: ‘Man in the Moon’ is a lava child

An artist's rendering of the Nasa GRAIL spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, helping scientists map the thickness of its crust by minute fluctuations in the gravitational pull on each probe. - Nasa handout

A dark lunar basin that, seen from Earth, produces the “Man in the Moon” effect, was created by an outpouring of lava and not an asteroid strike, astronomers said last Wednesday.

Known as the Oceanus Procellarum – the “ocean of storms” as classical skygazers dubbed it – the vast basin measures nearly 3,000km across.