The moon 's insides are crooked thanks to the near side being some 306 degrees Fahrenheit hotter at depth than its counterpart on the lunar far side.

This is the conclusion of an international team of researchers based on gravitational data collected by a pair of NASA spacecraft dubbed "Ebb" and "Flow."

The findings could help explain differences seen in the moon's surface geology, with the near side being darker and dominated by lava flows and the far side more rugged.

The thermal differences, the researchers wrote in their paper, "formed surface mare regions 3–4 billion years ago—and could influence the spatial distribution of deep moonquakes ."

(Mare is the name given to the large, dark plains of basalt on the moon that were formed as the result of volcanism and lava flows.)

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