Physical structure of the moon.

The moon has a much thicker lithosphere than the earth, as predicted by thermal models and as evidenced by the support of mascons, lack of surface folding, etc. More in question is whether the moon has a core (more properly, asthenosphere) of high temperature, as suggested by the volcanism 1.0-1.3 b.y. after origin and by the large low-degree harmonics in the gravity field. The moon is like the earth in having a large offset of center-of-mass from center-of-volume, apparently the residue of an early convective overturn associated with large-scale differentiation. The moon differs significantly from the earth in its lower iron content, gross homogeneity, much slower rate-of-change, and closer approach to isostatic equilibrium in the sense of stress-difference magnitudes.