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Moon

The moon is a natural satellite of Earth that formed over 4 billion years ago from debris ejected into orbit after a large impact. It is about a quarter the size of Earth and orbits about 384,000 km away. The moon has no atmosphere and experiences large temperature swings. Its surface is covered in impact craters and volcanic maria and it always keeps the same face toward Earth due to tidal locking. The moon undergoes phases as it orbits Earth and causes lunar eclipses when it moves into Earth's shadow.

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Jennine Paruli
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51 views

Moon

The moon is a natural satellite of Earth that formed over 4 billion years ago from debris ejected into orbit after a large impact. It is about a quarter the size of Earth and orbits about 384,000 km away. The moon has no atmosphere and experiences large temperature swings. Its surface is covered in impact craters and volcanic maria and it always keeps the same face toward Earth due to tidal locking. The moon undergoes phases as it orbits Earth and causes lunar eclipses when it moves into Earth's shadow.

Uploaded by

Jennine Paruli
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE MOON

About the Moon?


• A natural satellite
• One of more than 96 moon in solar system
• The only moon of the Planet Earth
• Prescence of craters, mountain, valleys
Location of the moon
• About 384,000 km from the Earth.
• 3486 km in diameter(about ¼ size of the Earth)
Birth of the Moon
First stage
• Moon originally was once part of the Earth
• Scientist believe a very large body hit the Earth early in its
development
• Throwing a huge amount of debris into orbit.
• Debris eventually was influence by earths gravity and formed the
moon we have today.
Second Stage
• After forming a sphere, the surface of the moon was covered by molten
rocks.
• Eventually, this mix of rocks separated.

Third Stage
• The outer surface of the moon cooled, forming a crust.
• Craters started to form constantly bombardment by meteoroids.
• Meteoroids decreased
• Moon cooled completely
• Moon change little in 3 billion years
Cut to the core
3 major division of the lunar interior
• Crust –average thickness of about 70km
• Mantle
• Core – radius is between 300 to 425 km
Moon’s Surface
• No atmosphere
• No liquid
• Extreme temperature
-Daytime = 130 degrees Celsius
- Night time = -190 degrees Celsius
• 1/6 Earths gravity
• Lunar rocks and dust cover most of the surface this layer is called regolith it
is 1/6 meters deep.
• Lack of atmosphere let many meteorites strike the moon’s surface, creating
this layer of crushed rocks.
Moon’s Surface
• Anorthosites are light colored, coarse-grained rocks found in the
lunar highlands.
• Breccia contains fragments of other rocks that have melted together,
and found everywhere on the moon.
Lunar Features - Highlands
• Mountains up to 7500 m (25,000 ft) tall
• Riles (trench like valleys)
Lunar Features - Craters
• There are about 30,000 craters of varying size
• Bowl shape depression or circular depression
• Up to 2500 km (1,553 miles) across
• Most formed by meteorite impact on the Moon (impact crating)
• Some formed by volcanic action inside the Moon.
• Each crater named after the famous scientist and philosopher of the
past
• Largest crater are named Grimaldi and Clavius
• The most familiar are named Tycho and Copernicus
Lunar features - Maria
• Originally thought to be “seas” by early astronomer galileo
• Darkest part of the lunar landscape
• Filled by lava after crash of huge meteorites on lunar surface 3-4
billion years ago
• Mostly basalt rock
Movements of Moon
• Apogee (farthest from Earth) about 406,700 km
• Perigee (closest to Earth) about 356,000km
• Revolution - revolves around the Earth every 27 1/3 days
• Rotation – moon turns on its axis every 27 days (rotation and
revolution are equal)
• Same side of Moon always faces Earth
Far Side of the Moon
• First seen by luna 3 Russian space probe in 1969
• Surface features different from near side
-more craters
-Very few maria
-thicker crust
Phases of the Moon
• New Moon
• Waxing Crescent
• First Quarter
• Waxing Gibbous
• Full moon
• Waning Gibbous
• Last Quarter
• Waning Crescent
Two types of Eclipse

Solar Eclipses

Lunar Eclipses
Lunar Eclipses
• Moon moves into Earth
Shadow – this shadow darkens the Moon
- Umbra: center cone shape part all the sunlight are blocked
-Penumbra: outer part of the shadow sunlight is only partially
blocked.
• About 2 – 3 per year
• Last up to 4 hours
Solar Eclipses

• Moon moves between Earth and Sun


• Moon cast shadow on the part of the Earth
• Total eclipses rare only once every 360 years from one location

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