The Moon By: Audrey Luecken Krissy Denby Drew Wolod

Dimensions  The moon’s diameter is 3,475 kilometers or 2,150 miles  It is about ¼ the size of the Earth  It’s density 3.3 times the density of water  The moons iron core is smaller than Earths  The moons gravity attraction is 1/6 of Earths attraction

Lunar Surface  Galileo saw two types of terrain with his telescope –Dark Lowlands –Bright Highlands  The dark parts of the moon were thought to be seas and were named Maria.  This would be disproved later because the moon does not have oceans

Lunar Surface  Tectonic forces aren’t active on the moon –Therefore no earthquakes or volcanoes  There is no atmosphere on the moon –Different types of erosion occur  Tiny space particles (micrometeorites) bombard the surface and smooth out the landscape

Lunar Surface  The moon rocks are usually rounded on top of they are not exposed to the lunar surface  The moon hasn’t changed in the last 3 billion years except for a few craters created by large meteorites.

Craters  The most obvious features on the lunar surface –There are even craters within craters  The larger ones are about 250 kilometers (150 miles) in diameter –Roughly the width of India  Most craters were created by the impact of rapidly moving debris

Craters  Upon impact, the high speed meteoroid compresses the material it strikes, then almost instantaneously the compressed rock rebounds, ejecting material from the crater –Imagine a rock being dropped in the water  Most ejected material lands near the crater, building a rim around it  The heat that is generated by impact can sometimes melt the impacted rock –Astronauts have brought back glass beads produced in this manner

Highlands  Make up most of the lunar surface  The entire “back” of the moon is made up of highlands  Within highland regions are mountain ranges –The highest lunar peaks reach elevations approaching 8 kilometers (only 1 kilometer shorter than Mount Everest)

Maria MMMMaria is the name given to the areas that were impacted by meteoroids –T–T–T–They look like “seas” because they are darker LLLLava also flows out in basaltic craters

Regolith  Regolith is unconsolidated debris that is piled up over billions of years  It is composed of igneous rock, breccia, glass beads, and lunar dust

Lunar History  The moon is the nearest planetary neighbor to the Earth  Some scientists support the hypothesis that a giant asteroid collided with Earth to produce the moon  Scientists learned the history of the moon by observing and measuring its craters

Lunar History  Scientists concluded that the moon evolved in three phases: –The Original Crust (highlands) –Maria Basins –Rayed Craters

Lunar History Early:  It was continually impacted and swept up debris  Enough impact melted the moons outer shell therefore no atmosphere Later:  The moon formed Maria Basins(between 3.2 and 3.8 billion years)  The final prominent feature that was created were rayed craters

Moon Rocks

Moon Facts WWWWho discovered: The moon is too much of a prominent feature in the night sky that no one could of said to have discovered TTTThe surface area of the moon is 14,658,000 square miles or 9.4 billion acres OOOOnly 59% of the moon's surface is visible from earth

 The moon rotates at 10 miles per hour compared to the earth's rotation of 1000 miles per hour  When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is called a blue moon  The moon has no global magnetic field.

Blue Moon!

Moon Facts IIIIt takes the moon 27 days to orbit the Earth TTTThe moons orbit is counterclockwise TTTThe moon orbits Earth at an average speed of 2,288 miles per hour  The moon is not a light source. Its light is reflected off the sun  The moon causes many of the oceans tides because of gravity

Moon Facts  A lunar halo is caused by light refracted through ice crystals in cirrus clouds. (ring around the moon)

The Moon is NOT made of cheese

Works cited  Picture:  Solar System Exploration. Web. 01 Apr  Space Wallpaper - Free Space Wallpaper, Backgrounds and Computer Desktops. Web. 01 Apr  Web. 01 Apr  Climate, Weather And. Space News From SpaceDaily.Com. Web. 01 Apr Let’s Launch a Rocket to the Moon! Web. 01 Apr r?mediafile=/Size4/NVA2-4- NA/6322/ducttape_apollo17_big.jpg&userid=1&username=admin&resolution=4&serv ertype=JVA&cid=4&iid=NVA2&vcid=NA&usergroup=NASA_Astronomy_Picture_of_th e_Day_Collecti-4-Admin&profileid=16  Climate, Weather And. Space News From SpaceDaily.Com. Web. 01 Apr Let’s Launch a Rocket to the Moon! Web. 01 Apr r?mediafile=/Size4/NVA2-4- NA/6322/ducttape_apollo17_big.jpg&userid=1&username=admin&resolution=4&serv ertype=JVA&cid=4&iid=NVA2&vcid=NA&usergroup=NASA_Astronomy_Picture_of_th e_Day_Collecti-4-Admin&profileid=16  COSMOS Magazine | The Science of Everything. Web. 01 Apr  Catching the Light: Astrophotography by Jerry Lodriguss.Web. 01 Apr  "Member Profile: Jack Brandt217: Digital Photography Review." Digital Cameras: Digital Photography Review, News, Reviews, Forums, FAQ. Web. 01 Apr  Information  Moon Information Resource And Guide. Web. 01 Apr