The Moon
The Moon is Earth’s closest neighbour in space and looms larger than any object in the night sky. Its cratered surface may be cold and Lifeless, but deep inside the Moon is a gigantic ball of white –hot iron.
Earth and Moon have together in space ever since the moon formed as the result of a cosmic collision. It orbits around our planet keeping the same face towards us at all times. As we gaze on its sunlit surface, we look at a landscape that has barely changed since 3.5 billion years ago. Back then, the young Moon of years they blasted out surface material and formed craters. The largest of these were than flooded with volcanic lava, creating dark, flat plains that look like seas.
How the moon formed:
Scientist think the moon formed as result of a collision between Earth and a planet 4.5 billion years ago. The debris was pulled together by gravity and became the Moon.
Impact: a planet smashes into Earth and bless molten rock into space.
Moon formation: A disc of debris forms. The particles join to form a Moon.
Moon profile:
Diameter…………. 3,474km(2,159miles)
Average surface temperature …. -53C(-63F)
Length of lunar day…….27Earth days
Time to orbit Earth…….27Earth days
Gravity (Earth =1) …….0.17
Lunar layers:
Like Earth, the Moon is made of different layers that separated out long ago, when its whole interior was molten. Lightweight minerals rose to the top, and heavier metals sank to the centre. The outermost layer is a thin crust of rock on earth. Under this is the mantel –a deep layer of rock that gets hotter towards the centre. The bottom part of the mantle is partly molten. In the Moon’s centre is an iron core heated to about 1,400C(26,000F) by energy from radioactive elements. Scientist think the outer core is molten but the inner core is squeezed solid by the pressure of the rock around it.
Man on the Moon: Astronauts landed on the Moon six times during NASA’s Apollo programme. They found a world of grey, dusty plains and rolling hills under an inky black sky. Below, an inky black sky. Below, an astronaut head back to his rover vehicle parked near Camelot crater(left), where he had been collecting samples. The large boulders were flung of the crater when it formed.
Man on the Moon: Astronauts landed on the Moon six times during NASA’s Apollo programme. They found a world of grey, dusty plains and rolling hills under an inky black sky. Below, an inky black sky. Below, an astronaut head back to his rover vehicle parked near Camelot crater(left), where he had been collecting samples. The large boulders were flung of the crater when it formed.
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