The Moon

The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth : orbit : 384,400 km from Earth diameter : 3476 km mass : 7.35e22 kg Called Luna by the Romans, Selene and Artemis by the Greeks, and many other names in other mythologies. The Moon, of ourse, has been kno!n sin e "rehistori times. #t is the se ond brightest ob$e t in the sky after the Sun . As the Moon orbits around the Earth on e "er month, the angle bet!een the Earth, the Moon and the Sun hanges% !e see this as the y le of the Moon&s "hases. The time bet!een su essi'e ne! moons is ().* days +,-) hours., slightly different from the Moon&s orbital "eriod +measured against the stars. sin e the Earth mo'es a signifi ant distan e in its orbit around the Sun in that time. /ue to its si0e and om"osition, the Moon is sometimes lassified as a terrestrial 1"lanet1 along !ith Mer ury , 2enus , Earth and Mars . The Moon !as first 'isited by the So'iet s"a e raft Luna ( in 3)*). #t is the only e4traterrestrial body to ha'e been 'isited by humans . The first landing !as on 5uly (-, 3)6) +do you remember !here you !ere7.% the last !as in /e ember 3),(. The Moon is also the only body from !hi h sam"les ha'e been returned to Earth. #n the summer of 3))8, the Moon !as 'ery e4tensi'ely ma""ed by the little s"a e raft Clementine . Lunar 9ros"e tor is no! in orbit around the Moon. The gra'itational for es bet!een the Earth and the Moon ause some interesting effe ts. The most ob'ious is the tides. The Moon&s gra'itational attra tion is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and !eaker on the o""osite side. Sin e the Earth, and "arti ularly the o eans, is not "erfe tly rigid it is stret hed out along the line to!ard the Moon. :rom our "ers"e ti'e on the Earth&s surfa e !e see t!o small bulges, one in the dire tion of the Moon and one dire tly o""osite. The effe t is mu h stronger in the o ean !ater than in the solid rust so the !ater bulges are higher. And be ause the Earth rotates mu h faster than the Moon mo'es in its orbit, the bulges mo'e around the Earth about on e a day gi'ing t!o high tides "er day. ;ut the Earth is not om"letely fluid, either. The Earth&s rotation arries the Earth&s bulges get slightly ahead of the "oint dire tly beneath the Moon. This means that the for e bet!een the Earth and the Moon is not e4a tly along the line bet!een

their enters "rodu ing a tor<ue on the Earth and an a elerating for e on the Moon. This auses a net transfer of rotational energy from the Earth to the Moon, slo!ing do!n the Earth&s rotation by about 3.* millise onds= entury and raising the Moon into a higher orbit by about >.? entimeters "er year. +The o""osite effe t ha""ens to satellites !ith unusual orbits su h as 9hobos and Triton.. The asymmetri nature of this gra'itational intera tion is also res"onsible for the fa t that the Moon rotates syn hronously , i.e. it is lo ked in "hase !ith its orbit so that the same side is al!ays fa ing to!ard the Earth. 5ust as the Earth&s rotation is no! being slo!ed by the Moon&s influen e so in the distant "ast the Moon&s rotation !as slo!ed by the a tion of the Earth, but in that ase the effe t !as mu h stronger. @hen the Moon&s rotation rate !as slo!ed to mat h its orbital "eriod +su h that the bulge al!ays fa ed to!ard the Earth. there !as no longer an offA enter tor<ue on the Moon and a stable situation !as a hie'ed. The same thing has ha""ened to most of the other satellites in the solar system. E'entually, the Earth&s rotation !ill be slo!ed to mat h the Moon&s "eriod, too, as is the ase !ith 9luto and Charon . A tually, the Moon a""ears to !obble a bit +due to its slightly nonA ir ular orbit. so that a fe! degrees of the far side an be seen from time to time, but the ma$ority of the far side +left. !as om"letely unkno!n until the So'iet s"a e raft Luna > "hotogra"hed it in 3)*). +Bote: there is no 1dark side1 of the Moon% all "arts of the Moon get sunlight half the time. Some uses of the term 1dark side1 in the "ast may ha'e referred to the far side as 1dark1 in the sense of 1unkno!n1 +eg 1darkest Afri a% but e'en that meaning is no longer 'alid todayC. The Moon has no atmos"here. ;ut e'iden e from Clementine suggested that there may be !ater i e in some dee" raters near the Moon&s south "ole !hi h are "ermanently shaded. This has no! been onfirmed by Lunar 9ros"e tor .There is a""arently i e at the north "ole as !ell. The ost of future lunar e4"loration $ust got a lot hea"erC The Moon&s rust a'erages 6? km thi k and 'aries from essentially under Mare Crisium to 3-, km north of the rater Dorole' on the lunar farside. ;elo! the rust is a mantle and "robably a small ore +roughly >8- km radius and (E of the Moon&s mass.. Fnlike the Earth&s mantle, ho!e'er, the Moon&s is only "artially molten. Curiously, the Moon&s enter of mass is offset from its geometri enter by about ( km in the dire tion to!ard the Earth. Also, the rust is thinner on the near side. There are t!o "rimary ty"es of terrain on the Moon: the hea'ily

ratered and 'ery old highlands and the relati'ely smooth and younger maria. The maria +!hi h om"rise about 36E of the Moon&s surfa e. are huge im"a t raters that !ere later flooded by molten la'a. Most of the surfa e is o'ered !ith regolith, a mi4ture of fine dust and ro ky debris "rodu ed by meteor im"a ts. :or some unkno!n reason, the maria are on entrated on the near side. Most of the raters on the near side are named for famous figures in the history of s ien e su h as Ty ho Co"erni us , and 9tolemaeus. :eatures on the far ha'e more modern referen es su h as A"ollo, Gagarin and Dorole' +!ith a distin tly Russian bias sin e the first images !ere obtained by Luna > #n addition to the familiar features on the near side, the Moon also has the huge raters South 9oleAAitken on the far side !hi h is ((*- km in diameter and 3( km dee" making it the the largest im"a t basin in the solar system and Grientale on the !estern limb +as seen from Earth% in the enter of the image at left. !hi h is a s"lendid e4am"le of a multiA ring rater. A total of >?( kg of ro k sam"les !ere returned to the Earth by the and "rograms. These "ro'ide most of our detailed kno!ledge of the Moon. They are "arti ularly 'aluable in that they an be dated. E'en today, (- years after the last Moon landing, s ientists still study these "re ious sam"les. Most ro ks on the surfa e of the Moon seem to be bet!een 8.6 and > billion years old. This is a fortuitous mat h !ith the oldest terrestrial ro ks !hi h are rarely more than > billion years old. Thus the Moon "ro'ides e'iden e about the early history of the Solar System not a'ailable on the Earth. 9rior to the study of the A"ollo sam"les, there !as no onsensus about the origin of the Moon. There !ere three "rin i"al theories: co-accretion !hi h asserted that the Moon and the Earth formed at the same time from the Solar Bebula % fission !hi h asserted that the Moon s"lit off of the Earth% and capture !hi h held that the Moon formed else!here and !as subse<uently a"tured by the Earth. Bone of these !ork 'ery !ell. ;ut the ne! and detailed information from the Moon ro ks led to the impact theory: that the Earth ollided !ith a 'ery large ob$e t +as big as Mars or more. and that the Moon formed from the e$e ted material. There are still details to be !orked out, but the im"a t theory is no! !idely a e"ted. The Moon has no global magneti field. ;ut some of its surfa e ro ks e4hibit remanent magnetism indi ating that there may ha'e been a global magneti field early in the Moon&s history. @ith no atmos"here and no magneti field, the Moon&s surfa e is

e4"osed dire tly to the solar !ind .G'er its 8 billion year lifetime many hydrogen ions from the solar !ind ha'e be ome embedded in the Moon&s regolith. Thus sam"les of regolith returned by the A"ollo missions "ro'ed 'aluable in studies of the solar !ind. This lunar hydrogen may also be of use someday as ro ket fuel.