HAVE YOU BEEN MOONED LATELY?

By Victoria Anderson and Kami Ward

Table of Contents

How the moon was formed…………….page 3

The moons orbit……………………………page 4

Composition of the moon……………….page 5

Size and distance from Earth…………..page 6

Phases of the moon……………………….page 7

Effects on Earth…………………………….page 8

Missions to the moon…………………….page 9

There are many interesting things about the moon but here are some very awesome things…

Do you know how the moon was formed, no? Okay well this will tell you: Several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moon's formation 4.527 ± 0.010 billion years age, some 30–50 million years after the origin of the Solar System.These included the fission of the Moon from the Earth's crust through centrifugal force which would require too great an initial spin of the Earth,]the gravitational capture

of a pre-formed Moon, which would require an unfeasibly extended atmosphere of the Earth to

dissipate the energy of the passing Moon, and the co-formation of the Earth and the Moon together in

the primordial accretion disk, which does not explain the depletion of metallic iron in the Moon. These hypotheses also cannot account for the high

angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. The prevailing hypothesis today is that the Earth–Moon system formed as a result of a giant impact: a Mars-sized body hitting the newly formed proto-

Earth, blasting material into orbit around it, which accreted to form the Moon. Giant impacts are thought

to have been common in the early Solar System.

Computer simulations modelling a giant impact are consistent with measurements of the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system, and the small size of the lunar core; they also show that most of the Moon came from the impactor, not from the proto-Earth. More recent tests suggest more of the Moon coalesced from the Earth and not the impactor.. Meteorites show that other inner Solar System bodies such as Mars and Vesta have very different oxygen and tungsten isotopic compositions to the Earth, while the Earth and Moon have near-identical isotopic compositions. Post-impact mixing of the vaporized material between the forming Earth and Moon could have equalized their isotopic compositions, although this is debated. The large amount of energy released in the giant impact event and the subsequent reaccretion of material in Earth orbit would have melted the outer shell of the Earth, forming a magma ocean.[ The newly formed Moon would also have had its own lunar magma ocean; estimates for its depth range from about 500 km to the entire radius of the Moon. Pretty amazing huh?

How the Moon Was Formed

You probably don’t know about the Earth’s orbit either. I know you don’t, I mean, if you knew why would you be reading this. Am I right? Yes of coarse I’m right. So, anyway, here are some interesting things about earth’s orbit: The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth with respect to the fixed stars about once every 27.3 days (its sidereal period). 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.

The Moons Orbit

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Composition of the Moon The moon's composition has been of great interest to scientists. With the collection of moon soil and moon rocks by astronauts, many questions have been able to be answered. Moon soil contains no fossils of plants or animals, but when this soil is placed on earth plants, they seem to grow better. Moon rocks are composed of minerals including aluminum, calcium, magnesium, oxygen, silicon, and titanium. Some gases are also trapped in these rocks, such as hydrogen and helium. These gases are said to have reached the moon by solar wind. Astronauts collect two main types of rock, basalt and breccias. Basalt is formed from hardened lava and is made of feldspar, proxene and limonite crystals. These minerals were formed at 2200 degrees, which proves that the moon was extremely hot when it was forming. Breccias is made of soil and rock that have been squeezed together when hit by falling objects. The moon's outer crust seems to be solid and hardy but not much is known about its inner material. When Apollo 13 sent part of the Saturn rocket crashing on to the moon, the result was seismic vibrations which lasted for four hours. These vibrations were not expected by the scientists.

Moon size is roughly 1/4th the size of the Earth. The volume of the Moon is 2.195 x 1010 km3. The moon is only a tiny fraction of one light year from earth. Its average distance from the earth is 384,403 km. This distance was not known until recently and it is called the astronomical unit or AU. The distances of the other planets to the sun are usually measured in astronomical units.

Size and Distance from Earth

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Phases of the Moon Have you ever wondered what causes the moon phases? We all know that its appearance changes over time. But why? The good way to understand the phases of the moon is to examine an earth-moon-sun diagram:

The Moons Effect on Earth The word "tides" is a generic term used to define the alternating rise and fall in sea level

with respect to the land, produced by the gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun. To a much smaller extent, tides also occur in large lakes, the atmosphere, and within the solid crust of the earth, acted upon by these same gravitational forces of the moon and sun. The moon has a noticeable effect on the earth in the form of tides, but it also affects the motion and orbit of the earth. The moon does not orbit the center of the earth, rather, they both revolve around the center of their masses called the barycenter. The sun acts on the earth and its moon as one entity with its center at the barycenter. Since the earth revolves around the barycenter, which in turn orbits the sun, the earth follows a wobbly path around the sun. To complicate things further, the barycenter is not always in the same place due to the elliptical nature of the moon’s orbit. The sun attracts the moon in such a way that it perturbs its orbit every 31.807 days, this phenomenon is called evection. The moon also changes the position of the earth’s equinoxes. The sun and moon each attract the earth’s equatorial bulge, trying to bring it into alignment with themselves. This torque is counteracted by the rotation of the earth. The combination of these two forces is a slow rotation of the earth’s axis, which in turn results in a slow westward rotation of the equinoxes. Looking down from the north pole, the equinoxes would appear to be rotating in a clockwise motion. The equinoxes and poles complete a rotation every 25,800 years. The equinoxes move at a rate of about 50.27 arc seconds per year. This phenomenon in known as the precession of the equinoxes.

Timeline with all Missions to the Moon

Name

Born

Died

Age at first step

Mission

Lunar EVA dates

Employer

01.

Neil Armstrong

August 5, 1930 (1930-08-05) (age 81)

38y 11m 15d

Apollo 11

July 21, 1969[3]

NASA[4]

02.

Buzz Aldrin

January 20, 1930 (1930-01-20) (age 82)

39y 6m 0d

Air Force

03.

Pete Conrad

June 2, 1930(1930-06-02)

July 8, 1999(1999-07-08) (aged 69)

39y 5m 17d

Apollo 12

November 19–20, 1969

Navy

04.

Alan Bean

March 15, 1932 (1932-03-15) (age 79)

37y 8m 4d

Navy

05.

Alan Shepard

November 18, 1923(1923-11-18)

July 21, 1998(1998-07-21) (aged 74)

47y 2m 18d

Apollo 14

February 5–6, 1971

Navy

06.

Edgar Mitchell

September 17, 1930 (1930-09-17) (age 81)

40y 4m 19d

Navy

07.

David Scott

June 6, 1932 (1932-06-06) (age 79)

39y 1m 25d

Apollo 15

July 31 – August 2, 1971

Air Force

08.

James Irwin

March 17, 1930(1930-03-17)

August 8, 1991(1991-08-08) (aged 61)

41y 4m 14d

Air Force

09.

John W. Young

September 24, 1930 (1930-09-24) (age 81)

41y 6m 28d

Apollo 16

April 21–23, 1972

Navy

10.

Charles Duke

October 3, 1935 (1935-10-03)

(age 76)

36y 6m 18d

Air Force

11.

Eugene Cernan

March 14, 1934 (1934-03-14) (age 77)

38y 9m 7d

Apollo 17

December 11–14, 1972

Navy

12.

Harrison Schmitt

July 3, 1935 (1935-07-03) (age 76)

37y 5m 8d

NA