THE MOON

3rd Period Earth Science

Shannon Tharpe

Jessica Freeman

Facts

• The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth

• Orbit: 384,400 km from Earth

• Diameter: 3476 km kg• Mass: 7.3522 kg

Origin Of The Moon

• The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. At the time Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, other smaller planetary bodies were also growing. One of these hit earth late in Earth's growth process, blowing out rocky debris. A fraction of that debris went into orbit around the Earth and aggregated into the moon.

The Moon’s Alias • January: Winter Moon• February: Trapper's Moon• March: Fish Moon• April: Planter's Moon • May: Milk Moon• June: Rose Moon• July: Summer Moon• August :Dog Day's Moon • September: Harvest Moon• October: Hunter's Moon• November: Beaver Moon • December: Christmas Moon

• The "official" name is the Moon, with a capital M. The satellites of the other planets are called moons (small m). The moon is sometimes also called Luna

Moon Myths

• The Moon was once believed to be a sister of the Earth, but this was disproved because the Moon has no Iron.

• “The Dark Side of the Moon” may be a song but it doesn’t exist. All parts of the moon receive sunlight except the bottom of deep craters.

• The Earth always sees the same side of the moon.

• The “Man In The Moon” is actually just a shadow of the craters

Apollo 11

• Apollo 11 was the first moon landing. The spacecraft landed on the surface of the moon on July 20th 1969. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. were the landers.

  

                 

Moon phases

Moon

APOLLO LAUNCH

What The Moon Is Made Of

• The moon is composed of rock and soil, not unlike earth. And there are some similarities. But the nature of the rocks and soil over the moon isn't that well documented. We only have a few samples, and this limited supply of stuff to study originated in only a few areas - those where we landed to investigate. It isn't like we have samples from all over, as there were only a few missions to the lunar surface.

Geology Of The Moon

• The geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth. The Moon lacks a significant atmosphere and any bodies of water, which eliminates erosion due to weather; it does not possess any form of plate tectonics, it has a lower gravity, and because of its small size, it cooled more rapidly. The complex geomorphology of the lunar surface has been formed by a combination of processes, chief among which are impact cratering, and volcanism. The Moon is a differentiated body, which possesses a crust, mantle and core.

Geology Continued

• Geological studies of the Moon are based on a combination of Earth based telescope observations, measurements from orbiting spacecraft, lunar samples, and geophysical data. A few locations were sampled directly during the Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which returned approximately 385 kilograms of lunar rock and soil to Earth, as well as several missions of the Soviet Luna programme. The Moon is the only extraterrestrial body for which we possess samples with a known geologic context. A handful of lunar meteorites have been recognized on Earth, though their source craters on the Moon are unknown. A substantial portion of the lunar surface has not been explored and a number of geological questions remain unanswered.

Craters

• It may be surprising to learn that the origin of the Moon's craters as impact features became widely accepted only in the 1940s. This realization allowed the impact history of the Moon to be gradually worked out by means of the geologic principle of superposition. That is, if a crater (or its ejecta) overlaid another, it must be the younger. The amount of erosion experienced by a crater was another clue to its age, though this is more subjective. Adopting this approach in the late 1950s, Gene Shoemaker took the systematic study of the Moon away from the astronomers and placed it firmly in the hands of the lunar geologists.

Why The Moon Fascinates So Many People

• It controls our tides thanks to its gravitational pull

• It’s a great source of nighttime light

• Not many people have been there

Pictures Of The Moon!

Sources

NASA. “The Moon.” 1997-2005.Solar veiws. March 18-19.<http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm>.