The Moon

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The Moon
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MOON FACTS
Natural satellite of earth
Gravity 1/6 of earth - WHY?
No atmosphere - WHY?
Temp. difference 134 C to -170 C -WHY?
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LUNAR SURFACE

• Light areas - rough highlands
• Dark areas - Maria - solidified lava

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Regolith

• Layer of dust on surface.
• Formed over billions of years by constant
  meteorite impacts.
• 4-5 meters in some places, and even as deep as
  15 meters in the older highland areas.

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Rilles

• Long deep channels running through maria
• Once were rivers of flowing lava

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• This is a photo of Hadley Rille from the lunar
  surface. Astronaut James Irwin is standing in the
  foreground by the lunar rover. At this point, the
  rille is nearly a mile wide. Note the many
  boulders on the Valley floor. These rocks have
  apparently rolled off of the Valley wall over
  time. Thus, any lava flows inside the rille are
  now buried by an unknown amount of rocks and
  soils. The rille appears to have cut down through
  a couple of older lava flows, however. These
  flows are probably the only actual bedrock seen
  by astronauts on the Moon. They form small cliff
  faces near the top of the rille wall in the
  distance. Due to the loose soil and steep slopes
  above these cliffs, however, no samples were
  taken of these units. (Apollo Photograph
  AS15-84-11450)

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Craters

• Bowl shaped depressions
• Most formed millions of years ago
• Rays - splash marks caused by recent collisions

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Moon Rocks
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Basalt

• Dark colored
• Fine Grained
• Rich in magnesium, titanium and iron

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Anorthosites

• Light-colored
• coarse-grained
• rich in calcium and aluminum

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Breccia

• fragments of several rocks melted together formed
  impact

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Moon Formation - Stage One
MOON FORMATION - STAGE 1
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Large object hits molten earth sending fragments
of earth into orbit
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Moon Formation Stage 2
Surface of moon covered with hot molten rock.
Densest materials sank to the center.
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Moon Formation - Stage 3
Outer surface cooled forming thick solid crust.
Maria formed as meteorites struck moon surface
and molten lava flowed up to the surface.
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INTERIOR OF MOON

• Crust - 60 to 100 km thick composed mainly of
  oxygen and silicon.
• Mantle - 1000 km thick composed of silica,
  magnesium, and iron.
• Core - lt700 km composed of iron.