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Our Moon: A Closer Look at
Our Moon: A Closer Look at
Our Moon: A Closer Look at
Our Moon
– Communications
– Monitoring the weather
– Observing the Earth
– Exploring the solar system
The moon is a cold, dry orb whose surface is studded
with craters and strewn with rocks and dust. The moon
has no atmosphere. Recent lunar missions indicate that
there might be some frozen ice at the poles.
The Moon’s movement
The moon revolves around the Earth in
about one month (27 days 8 hours). It
rotates around its own axis in the same
amount of time. The same side of the
moon always faces the Earth; it is in a
synchronous rotation with the Earth.
The Moon’s This Picture Distorts the
Earth-Moon Distance
Orbit
The Moon and Earth
both orbit around a
point between their
centers called the
center of mass of the
Earth-Moon system
The center of mass
then follows an
elliptical orbit around
the Sun
An Everyday Example of Center of Mass Motion
TEMPERATURE
The temperature on the Moon ranges from
daytime highs of about 130°C = 265°F to
nighttime lows close to -310 °F.
ATMOSPHERE
The moon has no atmosphere. On the moon, the
sky is always appears dark, even on the bright
side (because there is no atmosphere). Also,
since sound waves travel through air, the moon
is silent; there can be no sound transmission on
the moon.
The surface of the moon
is scarred by millions of
(mostly circular) impact
craters, caused by
asteroids, comets, and
meteorites. There is no
atmosphere on the moon
to help protect it from
bombardment from
potential impactors (most
objects from space burn
up in our atmosphere).
Also, there is no erosion
(wind or precipitation) and
little geologic activity to
wear away these craters,
so they remain unchanged
until another new impact
changes it.
The Moon’s airless, dry surface
is covered
with plains and craters
The Earth-facing side
of the Moon displays
light-colored, heavily
cratered highlands
and dark-colored,
smooth-surfaced
maria
The Moon’s far side
has almost no maria
Another View of the Moon
The Moon’s Surface – Close up
Virtually all
lunar
craters
were
caused by
space
debris
striking the
surface
There is no
evidence
of plate
tectonic
activity on
the Moon
The maria formed after the surrounding light-colored
terrain, so they have not been exposed to meteoritic
bombardment for as long and have fewer craters
Human exploration of the lunar
surface
Much of our knowledge
about the Moon has come
from human exploration in
the 1960s and early 1970s
and from more recent
observations by unmanned
spacecraft
Man on the Moon
There have been 6 missions to the moon,
including orbiters missions and moon
landings. On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong
was the first person to set foot on the
moon. His first words upon stepping down
the Lunar Module's ladder onto the lunar
surface were, "That's one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin
described the lunar scenery as "magnificent
desolation."
12 astronauts have walked on the moon. All
were American.
How did the Moon form?
Most scientists believe that the moon was
formed from the ejected material after the
Earth collided with a Mars-sized object.
This ejected material gathered into the
moon that went into orbit around the Earth.
This catastrophic collision occurred about
60 million years after Earth itself formed
(about 4.3 billion years ago). This is
determined by the dating of moon rocks.
Meteoroid
impacts have
been the only
significant
erosion
agent on the
Moon
The Moon’s
regolith, or
surface layer
of powdered
and fractured
rock, was
formed by
meteoritic
action
All of the lunar rock samples are igneous rocks
formed largely of minerals found in terrestrial rocks
High-
lands
Mare anorth-
basalt osite