Lecture 5

The Moon

APO
D

Telescope Observations
The first observers to point their
telescopes at the Moonmost notable
among them Galileo Galileisaw large
areas resembling Earths oceans.
They also saw light-colored areas
resembling the continents.
The light and dark surface features
are also evident to the naked eye.

Surface Features

APOD:
Moonrise, Cape Sounion, Greece

Maria
The dark areas are not
oceans, but extensive
flat areas.
Nevertheless they are
still called Maria, a
Latin word meaning
seas.
There are 14 maria, all
are roughly circular.
The largest of them is
Mare Imbrium.

Lunar Highlands
The lighter areas were originally
dubbed terrae, from the Latin word
for land.
They are now known to be elevated
several kilometers above the maria.
Accordingly, they are usually called
the lunar highlands.

Composition
The highlands are made largely of
rocks rich in aluminum, making them
lighter in color.
The material in the maria contains
more iron, giving it a darker color.
Maria rock is quite similar to terrestrial
basalt. Geologists think that it arose on
the Moon from the upwelling of molten
material through the crust.

Craters
Telescopic observations further resolve
the surface into numerous craters
(after the Greek word for bowl).
Most craters apparently formed eons
ago, primarily as the result of
meteoritic impact.
Craters are much more prevalent in
the highlands.

Cratering History
The Moon was subjected to an extended
period of intense meteoritic
bombardment roughly 4 billion years ago.
The Moon, and presumably the entire
solar system, experienced a sudden drop
in the meteoritic bombardment about 3.9
billion years ago.
The highlands solidified and received
most of their craters before that time.
The maria solidified afterward.

Fix, FIGURE 9.24

Maria Formation
The great basins that comprise the
maria are thought to have been
created during the final stages of the
heavy bombardment, between 4.1
and 3.9 billion years ago.
Subsequent volcanic activity filled the
craters with lava, ultimately creating
the formations we see today as the
lava turned into solid rock.

Arny & Schneider, FIGURE 6.16

Ray Craters

Copernicus & Ty
cho

some craters seem

to sprout systems
of bright radial
lines or rays.
In general, ray
craters are
relatively young as
their rays overlay
the lunar terrain.

Near Side
The Moon has a
near side which
is always visible
from Earth, and a
far side which
never is.

Synchronous Orbit
The Moons
rotation period is
precisely equal to
its period of
revolution about
Earth, so the Moon
keeps the same
side facing Earth at
all times.

Earths Tidal Force

Just as the Moon raises tides on Earth,
Earth also produces a tidal bulge in the
Moon.
Because Earth is so much more massive,
the tidal force on the Moon is much
greater than that on Earth.
The Moons much larger tidal deformation
caused it to have become tidally locked to
Earth long ago.
The Moon is slightly elongated in shape, with
its long axis perpetually pointing toward Earth.

Far Side
When the far side
of the Moon was
mapped by
spacecrafts, no
major maria were
found there.
The lunar far side
is composed
almost entirely of
highlands.

Absence of Major Maria

The crust on the
lunar far side is
thicker than that on
the side facing Earth.
The far side of the
Moon has no large
maria because the
crust was too thick to
allow volcanic
activity to occur
there.
Fix, FIGURE 9.28

Thicker Crust

Eart
h

The denser
mantle
tended to sink
in Earths
gravitational
field

Moo
n

The crust
became
thicker

Spacecraft Exploration
On July 20, 1969,
Apollo 11
commander Neil
Armstrong became
the first human to
set foot on the
Moon.
YouTube:
One Small Step

Weak Gravitational Field

YouTubes:
Apollo Moon astronaut falls flat on his face!
Astronaut acting retarded on the moon
Astronauts on moon surface (2x speed)

The mass of the Moon is approximately

1/80 the mass of Earth.
The force of gravity on the lunar surface
is only about 1/6 that on Earth.
A man weighing 300 kg on Earth would
weigh a mere 50 kg on the Moon.

No Atmosphere
Astronomers have never observed any
appreciable atmosphere on the Moon.
This is a direct of consequence of the
Moons weak gravitational field.
Earth has an atmosphere because its
gravitational field exerts a pull on all
the atoms and molecules in our
atmosphere, preventing them from
escaping.

Flying Flag?
To compensate for
the lack of an
atmosphere on the
lunar surface, the
flag assembly
included a
horizontal crossbar
to give the illusion
of a flag flying in
the breeze.

No Stars?
Pictures of astronauts
transmitted from the
Moon dont include
stars in the dark lunar
sky.
Setting a camera with
the proper exposure
for a glaring spacesuit
would naturally
render background
stars too faint to see.

Extreme Surface
Temperatures
Lacking the moderating influence of an
atmosphere, the Moon is characterized
by a wide variation in surface
temperature.
Noontime temperatures at the Moons
equator can reach 400K (273K = 0C),
well above the boiling point of water.
At night or in the shade, the
temperature falls to about 100K, well
below waters freezing point.

Water
The Moon is lack of water because of the
high (up to 400 K) daytime temperatures
found over most of the lunar surface.
Ice might be found near the lunar poles.
Most likely, all this ice was brought to the
lunar surface by comets. (This is the likely
origin of Earths water, too.) In the deep
basins near the poles, the ice survived and
built up over time.
The polar ice may be a crucial component
of any serious attempt at human
colonization of the Moon.

Polar Ice

APOD: 2010 October 25 - Moons

South Pole

Pictured left from

LRO, areas in falsecolor blue indicate
the presence of soil
relatively rich in
hydrogen, which is
thought likely bound
to sub-surface water
ice.
Conversely, the red
areas are likely dry.

Lunar Dust
Meteoroid collisions
with the Moon are the
main cause of the
layer of pulverized
ejecta that covers the
landscape to an
average depth of
about 20 m.
Pictured right is an
astronauts bootprint
in the regolith (the
first lunar footprint).

APOD: One Small

Step

Ejecta Blanket

Interior
Earth has a large,
massive, and very
dense nickel-iron
core.
The Moon does not
have that.

Formation

Impact Theory
The impact theory postulates a collision
by a Mars-sized object with a youthful
and molten Earth.
The collision would have been more a
glancing blow than a direct impact.
The matter dislodged from our planet
then assembled to form the Moon.
Both the Moons overall similarity to that
of Earths mantle and its lack of a dense
central core are natural explained.
Video: The formation of the moon

Arny & Schneider, FIGURE 6.15