THE

MOON

MAG 1st Edition

Published by: Nick Amerson & Conrad Lax

Table of Contents

Physical Characteristics of the Moon Pg. 3-4

Phases of the Moon Pg. 5-6

Effects of the Moon on the Earth Pg. 7

Orbit of the Moon Pg. 8

Missions Timeline Pg. 9

Extra Activities Pg. 10-11

Physical Characteristics of the Moon There are many explanations, or theories to how the Earth was formed. Here are five serious

that have been proposed for the formation of the Moon (not counting the one involving green

cheese).

1. The Fission Theory: The Moon was once part of the Earth and somehow separated

from the Earth early in the history of the Solar System. The present Pacific Ocean

basin is the most popular site for the part of the Earth from which the Moon came.

2. The Capture Theory: The Moon was formed somewhere else, and was later

captured by the gravitational field of the Earth.

3. The Condensation Theory: The Moon and the Earth condensed together from the

original nebula that formed the Solar System.

4. The Colliding Planetesimals Theory: The interaction of earth-orbiting and Sun-

orbiting planetesimals (very large chunks of rocks like asteroids) early in the history

of the Solar System led to their breakup. The Moon condensed from this debris.

5. The Ejected Ring Theory: A planetesimal the size of Mars struck the earth, ejecting

large volumes of matter. A disk of orbiting material was formed, and this matter

eventually condensed to form the Moon in orbit around the Earth.

Page 3

Physical Characteristics of the Moon

(cont.)

Composition

What is the Moon made of? Start by looking at its surface. This

picture shows it very well. There are light areas and dark areas.

The dark areas are called seas, but they do not contain water. The

seas are flat regions, whereas the light areas are rugged and are

higher on average. For this reason, they are also called highlands.

Across the whole surface, craters caused by meteoric impacts are

evident. The craters are much more enhanced and frequent within

the light areas.

In the years from 1969 to 1972 the Moon has been explored by

man. Astronauts brought back to Earth some samples of lunar soil,

so it has been possible to analyze and date those rocks.

It has been found that the younger lunar rocks are the dark ones, those of the seas, and that they

are 3.2 billion years old. The older ones are the light rocks of the highlands, and they are 4.6

billion years old.

Even if the mass of the Moon is just one hundredth of that of the Earth, the ratio of the mass of

the Moon over that of the Earth is very large, if one compares it to the case of the other planets.

Leaving aside the Pluto-Charon system, the Earth-Moon system is indeed a unique case in the

Solar System. Generally speaking, satellites are much smaller than the planets which hold them

into an orbit. A well-known phenomenon is connected to this peculiarity.

Size

The diameter of the moon is 3,476 km. Its volume is 2.195 x 1010 km3. It is one-fourth the size of the

Earth. The surface area of the moon is 37.9 million square km. The mass of the moon is 7.347 x 1022 km

Page 4

Phases of the Moon

FULL MOON

A full moon appears as an entire circle in the sky. The full moon is given different names, depending on

when it appears. For example, the "Harvest moon" is the full moon that appears nearest to the

Autumnal Equinox, occurring in late September or early October.

GIBBOUS MOON

A gibbous moon is between a full moon and a half moon, or between a half moon and a full moon.

HALF MOON

A half-moon looks like half a circle. It is sometimes called a quarter moon (this Moon has completed one

quarter of an orbit around the Earth from either the full or new position and one quarter of the moon's

surface is visible from Earth).

CRESCENT MOON

A crescent moon is part way between a half moon and a new moon, or between a new moon and a half

moon.

NEW MOON

The new moon is the phase of the moon when the moon is not visible from Earth, because the side of

the moon that is facing us is not being lit by the sun.

Page 5

Phases of the Moon (cont.)

New Moon- Waning Gibbous-

Waxing Crescent- Last Quarter-

First Quarter- Waning Crescent-

Waxing Gibbous-

Full Moon-

Page 6

Effects of the Moon on the Earth The Moon affects the liquid envelope of the Earth, and the oceanic tides in

particular. The Moon affects the ocean tides more in some areas than others. For instance, in

the channel between the British Isles and the European continent, the tidal range can be 10

meters, compared to what you see in the Pacific, where it is below a meter. The crust of the

Earth is also affected. The Moon’s tidal forcing causes significant heating and dissipation of

energy to take place. Part of this energy is heating the Earth, and part of it is dissipated by

forcing the Moon to recede from the Earth over time. There are people who propose that the

tidal effect of the Moon may have helped trigger the convection on the Earth that led to the

multi-plate tectonics. The other planets don’t have the same tectonic cycle. For most of them,

the crust is like a lid that doesn’t move much horizontally, and the magma and heat are blocked

by this lid on the surface. The Earth instead has rolling convective motion that drags the crust,

and then the crust plunges back down into the mantle and gets recycled. The Moon has

influenced biology in other ways as well. For species living near the coast, the tide is an important factor.

When you look at the shorelines, you can recognize different layers of organisms that have adapted to

the salt water conditions based on the ebb and flow of the tide. If you would take away the Moon

suddenly, it would change the global altitude of the ocean. Right now there is a distortion which

is elongated around the equator, so if we didn’t have

this effect, suddenly a lot of water would be

redistributed toward the Polar Regions.

During its flight, the Galileo spacecraft

returned images of the Earth and the

Moon. The separate images were

combined to generate this view.

Map showing tidal variations across the

globe. Red areas represent large variations in

water level; purple areas represent zero or

very low tidal variation.

Page 7

Orbit of the Moon

The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth

with respect to the fixed stars about once every

27.3 days (a month). However, since the Earth is

moving in its orbit about the Sun at the same time,

it takes slightly longer for the Moon to show the

same phase to Earth, which is about 29.5 days (its

synodic period). Unlike most satellites of other

planets, the Moon orbits nearer the ecliptic plane than to the planet's equatorial

plane. The Moon's orbit is subtly perturbed by the Sun and Earth in many small,

complex and interacting ways. For example, the plane of the Moon's orbital

motion gradually rotates, which affects other aspects of lunar motion. These

follow-on effects are mathematically described by Cassini's laws.

Page 8

Space Missions Timeline

1959 Click here for a list of all lunar instruments.

Luna 1 Jan 2, 1959 Flyby

Pioneer 4 Mar 3, 1959 Flyby Luna 2 Sep 12, 1959 Impact Luna 3 Oct 4, 1959 Probe 1961

Ranger 1 Aug 23, 1961 Attempted Test Flight

Ranger 2 Nov 18, 1961 Attempted Test Flight

1962 Ranger 3 Jan 26, 1962 Attempted Impact

Ranger 4 Apr 23, 1962 Impact

Ranger 5 Oct 18, 1962 Attempted Impact

1963 Luna 4 Apr 2, 1963 Flyby

1964 Ranger 6 Jan 30, 1964 Impact

Ranger 7 Jul 28, 1964 Impact

1965 Ranger 8 Feb 17, 1965 Impact

Ranger 9 Mar 21, 1965 Impact Luna 5 May 9, 1965 Impact Luna 6 Jun 8, 1965 Attempted Lander Zond 3 Jul 18, 1965 Flyby Luna 7 Oct 4, 1965 Impact Luna 8 Dec 3, 1965 Impact 1966 Luna 9 Jan 31, 1966 Lander

Luna 10 Mar 31, 1966 Orbiter Surveyor 1 May 30, 1966 Lander Lunar Orbiter 1 Aug 10, 1966 Orbiter Luna 11 Aug 24, 1966 Orbiter Surveyor 2 Sep 20, 1966 Attempted Lander Luna 12 Oct 22, 1966 Orbiter Lunar Orbiter 2 Nov 6, 1966 Orbiter Luna 13 Dec 21, 1966 Lander 1967 Lunar Orbiter 3 Feb 4, 1967 Orbiter

Surveyor 3 Apr 17, 1967 Lander Lunar Orbiter 4 May 8, 1967 Orbiter Surveyor 4 Jul 14, 1967 Attempted Lander Lunar Orbiter 5 Aug 1, 1967 Orbiter Surveyor 5 Sep 8, 1967 Lander Surveyor 6 Nov 7, 1967 Lander 1968 Surveyor 7 Jan 7, 1968 Lander

Luna 14 Apr 7, 1968 Orbiter Zond 5 Sep 15, 1968 Return Probe Apollo 7 Oct 11, 1968

Zond 6 Nov 10, 1968 Return Probe

Apollo 8 Dec 21, 1968 Crewed Orbiter 1969

Apollo 9 March 3, 1969

Apollo 10 May 18, 1969 Orbiter

Page 9

Luna 15 Jul 13, 1969 Orbiter Apollo 11 Jul 16, 1969 Crewed Lander Zond 7 Aug 7, 1969 Return Probe Apollo 12 Nov 14, 1969 Crewed Lander 1970

Apollo 13 Apr 11, 1970 Crewed Lander (aborted) Luna 16 Sep 12, 1970 Sample Return Zond 8 Oct 20, 1970 Return Probe Luna 17/Lunokhod 1 Nov 10, 1970 Rover 1971 Apollo 14 Jan 31, 1971 Crewed Lander

Apollo 15 Jul 26, 1971 Crewed Lander Luna 18 Sep 2, 1971 Impact Luna 19 Sep 28, 1971 Orbiter 1972 Luna 20 Feb 14, 1972 Sample Return

Apollo 16 Apr 16, 1972 Crewed Landing Apollo 17 Dec 7, 1972 Crewed Landing 1973

Luna 21/Lunokhod 2 Jan 8, 1973 Rover

1974 Luna 22 Jun 2, 1974 Orbiter Luna 23 Oct 28, 1974 Lander 1976 Luna 24 Aug 14, 1976 Sample Return

1990 Hiten Jan 24, 1990 Flyby, Orbiter, and Impact

1994 Clementine Jan 25, 1994 Orbiter

1997 AsiaSat 3/HGS-1 Dec 24, 1997 Lunar Flyby

1998 Lunar Prospector Jan 7, 1998 Orbiter and Impact

2003 SMART 1 Sep 27, 2003 Orbiter

2007 Kaguya (SELENE) Sep 14, 2007 Orbiter

Chang'e 1 Oct 24, 2007 Orbiter 2008

Chandrayaan-1 Oct 22, 2008 Orbiter

Lunar-A Cancelled Orbiter and Penetrators

2009 LRO Jun 18, 2009 Orbiter

LCROSS Jun 18, 2009 Impact 2010

Chang'e 2 October 1, 2010 Orbiter

ARTEMIS 2010 Orbiter

2011 GRAIL September 8, 2011 Orbiter

Page 10

The Moon Mag Crossword Puzzle

Nick Amerson and Conrad Lax

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10

11

Across

3. what dirt on the moon is called

4. name of a spacecraft

9. last phase of the moon phase

cycle

11. dark, flat regions on the moon,

also called highlands

Down

1. the moon moves in what kind of orbit

2. one major thing that the moon effects on Earth

5. the moon is _ of the size of Earth

6. craters on the moon are caused by this

7. laws that describe how the Moon's orbital motion

gradually rotates

8. first phase of the moon phase cycle

10. Theory that the moon was formed somewhere else

but overtime gravitated toward Earth

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