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2 basic questions about the Moon



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 28th 04, 01:18 AM
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Default 2 basic questions about the Moon

Hello, I can't seem to find the answers to 2 basic questions
about the Moon. Is there an astronaut or someone like that who
could help me out?

(1) Why are the mare almost all on the side facing Earth? I've
read they are perhaps ancient lava flows (but not from a volcano
I guess because there doesn't seem to be any volcano in the
middle of them?) And it appears from the Apollo photos they are
brownish in direct sunlight if you are standing in the middle of
them? And what color would the highlands be, grey? And (sorry
this is actually several questions) what is the surface like
walking on the Moon, it is hard and crusty or rather like sand?
Is the latter why it was so difficult to plant the American flag
and why it fell over?

(2) (Shorter question) If I straighten out the Earth's
revolution around the Sun so it's a straight line, what curve is
the Moon's motion along that line most similar to, perhaps a
sine wave? I know it's actually an incredibly complicated curve
but that's the general shape of it, i.e. there are no little
loops or sudden changes of direction?

Thanks!

  #2  
Old September 29th 04, 06:48 PM
starlord
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I've read some good articles about the forming of our moon, it is not
uniform in make up, the otherside is made up of lighter rock than the earth
facing side. The 'seas' where made from when large impacts happened and it
remelted the vast areas which flooded the area. No Volcanos where ever on
the moon.

As for the flag of Apollo 11, they placed it to close to the lem's base and
the exhust from the command section lifting off blew it over. Later missions
which placed flags planted them away from the lem's base so that would not
happen again.


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wrote in message
m...
Hello, I can't seem to find the answers to 2 basic questions
about the Moon. Is there an astronaut or someone like that who
could help me out?

(1) Why are the mare almost all on the side facing Earth? I've
read they are perhaps ancient lava flows (but not from a volcano
I guess because there doesn't seem to be any volcano in the
middle of them?) And it appears from the Apollo photos they are
brownish in direct sunlight if you are standing in the middle of
them? And what color would the highlands be, grey? And (sorry
this is actually several questions) what is the surface like
walking on the Moon, it is hard and crusty or rather like sand?
Is the latter why it was so difficult to plant the American flag
and why it fell over?

(2) (Shorter question) If I straighten out the Earth's
revolution around the Sun so it's a straight line, what curve is
the Moon's motion along that line most similar to, perhaps a
sine wave? I know it's actually an incredibly complicated curve
but that's the general shape of it, i.e. there are no little
loops or sudden changes of direction?

Thanks!



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  #4  
Old September 30th 04, 07:18 PM
John Popelish
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starlord wrote:

I've read some good articles about the forming of our moon, it is not
uniform in make up, the otherside is made up of lighter rock than the earth
facing side. The 'seas' where made from when large impacts happened and it
remelted the vast areas which flooded the area. No Volcanos where ever on
the moon.

(snip)

The apparent lack of volcanism fits with the Earth impact hypothesis
of lunar formation. That hypothesis assumes that the entire lunar
mass was ejected into the vacuum of space in molten or vapor form,
which would allow anything gaseous to be separated from the rocky
material (and either be swept away in the solar wind, or reabsorbed
into Earth's atmosphere), before it coalesced into a moon. The
resultant body would be very deficient in high vapor pressure
materials, so there would be no gas pressure to drive any volcanic
expulsions. If the hardened crust were broken by impact, the surface
would just sink into the lava below the molten subsurface and a new
surface would harden. This is what the Maria look like.

Io is just the opposite extreme, with a great bounty of volatile
material in its makeup, so lots of explosive eruptions.

--
John Popelish

 




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