Official name of the Moon
Luna
Physical properties of the moon
Angular size: 1/2 degrees
1/4 of Earth's diameter= largest fraction of its planet
Moons Mass
1/100 Earth's mass
Moons Gravity
1/6 of Earth's gravity
Moons surface temperature
day: 260 degrees F
night: negative 280 degrees F
Moon's distance from Earth
240,000 miles
What did we discover in 2009?
There is water on the moon
Age of moon
4.6 billion years (same as Earth)
Giant Impact Theory
-Body collided with Earth
-Created debris
-debris condensed
-surface molten
Maria
the large, dark, flat areas on the Moon
Galileo's discoveries with Maria
-seas= maria
-sea= mare
-Largest craters filled with lava cooled
The first manned landing in 1969
Sea of Tranquility
List of Maria on the Moon
Ocean of Storms, Sea of Serenity, Sea of Tranquility
highlands of moon
overlapping craters
ringed basin
impact caused ripples
Rilles
lava tubes collapsed
1973 IALL policy
-no political
-no religious
-no military
-yes, real people
Rotation of the moon
29 and a half days and counter-clock
Revolution of the moon
elliptical orbit
Perigee
close point
apogee
far point
...
Moon looks bigger at horizon
sidereal (ref to stars) month
27 days and 7 1/2 hours
perigee to perigee
anomalistic month=27 days and 13 hours
solar (ref to sun) month
29 1/2 days
gravitational locking
we see the same side of moon (near)
The lunar plane is tilted with respect to the ecliptic plane by
5 degrees
lunar orbital plane precesses cycle
18.6 years
how many days does is the moon cycle
29 1/2 days
our months have 30 or 31 days except when?
February 28,29
What happens if the full moon is early in the calendar month?
We can get a 2nd full moon in same month
-this is called a blue moon (rare but possible)
Does the moon rise later each night?
yes by 38-66 minutes
Tides
difference in gravitational force across a body
Eclipse
named for hidden thing
lunar eclipse
Moon covered by the Earth's shadow
total lunar eclipse
moon is in the plane of ecliptic and full and perigee
partial lunar eclipse
not quite in plane, part in umbra
penumbral lunar eclipse
not in plane, not in perigee
Ranger
1000s pictures
surveyor
soil analysis
Clementine
radar to detect H2O
Lunar Prospector
Crash, plume of soil
Eugene Shoemaltier
buried on Moon
LCROSS
crash, plume of soil, H20
Luna 1
-24
-1st successful: flyby, orbit, photos of far side, soft landing
Apollo 11
-6 landings
-12 American men
Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin