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Ever since humans first gazed up at the stars, we have been fascinated by the Man in the Moon.

The ancient Chinese thought the lonely soul staring down at them was a goddess stranded after consuming an immortality potion.

Early Christians believed it was the face of man banished for collecting firewood on the Sabbath.

The shapes making up the 'face' of the Man in the Moon are likely to have been created by magma bubbling up to the moon's surface, new research reveals. This image shows a full moon as seen from the Earth, with the Procellarum border structures of 'face' superimposed in red

And medieval Englishmen held him to be the god of drunkards, a lunar being with a special taste for claret.

More recently scientists have assumed the circles forming the image of a face were formed by asteroid strikes.

But now, at long last, we are close to the truth.

The famous shapes are likely to have been created by magma bubbling up to the moon's surface, new research reveals.

The 1,800-mile-wide (2,897km) section of the moon's Procellarum basin was formed by large plumes of molten rock, the US scientists believe.

The ancient Chinese thought the lonely soul staring down at them was a goddess stranded after consuming an immortality potion, while early Christians believed it was the face of man banished for collecting firewood on the Sabbath. This image shows the marking most people see as the face's eyes, nose and mouth

Experts found that the circles were not made by asteroids but sharp angles produced by giant tension cracks in the moon's crust as it cooled around upwelling plumes of hot material from the deep interior (illustrated)

The latest theory, published in the journal Nature, was established by analysing high-definition maps of the moon's surface.

Using Nasa data, a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the circles are not circular - as would be the case if they were caused by asteroids.

The researchers discovered that they are instead made up of sharp angles produced by giant tension cracks in the moon's crust as it cooled around upwelling plumes of hot material from the deep interior.

Maria Zuber, MIT's vice president for research, says that as cracks occurred, they formed a 'plumbing system' in the moon's crust through which magma could meander to the surface.

Magma eventually filled the region's smaller basins, creating what we see today as dark spots on the near side of the moon. These are the features which inspired the idea of a man in the moon.

Professor Zuber said: 'A lot of things in science are really complicated, but I've always loved to answer simple questions.

Medieval Englishmen held the Man in the Moon be the god of drunkards, a lunar being with a special taste for claret, while the character also figures in children's books watching over people on Earth

Magma eventually filled the region's smaller basins, creating what we see today as dark spots on the near side of the moon. This image shows the moon seen in visible light (left), topography (centre, where red is high and blue is low), and gravity gradients (right). The Procellarum region is a broad region of low topography

'How many people have looked up at the moon and wondered what produced the pattern we see - let me tell you, I've wanted to solve that one!'

The map was created using twin probes that orbited the moon from January to December 2012 and was used to determine where the lunar crust thickens and thins.

They found that the rim of the Procellarum region is composed of edges made up of 120-degree angles. An asteroid strike would create circular or elliptical craters and not these angular shapes, the team suggests.

But parts of the mystery remain. Professor Zuber said: 'How such a plume arose remains a mystery. It could be due to radioactive decay of heat-producing elements in the deep interior.

'Or, conceivably, a very early large impact triggered the plume. But in the latter case, all evidence for such an impact has been completely erased.

'People who thought that all this volcanism was related to a gigantic impact need to go back and think some more about that.'