Surface of the Moon Lab
In this lab, the ultimate purpose is to study and draw conclusions about the surface of the Moon and it's history. Through the observations of craters, crater formation, mountain ranges, mare, etc. on both the near and far side of the moon, one will able to draw conclusions about the history of the Moon and how it came to be as the body we know today.
First, we looked at the most basic formations and how they were placed on the moon.
A)
1.There are much more maria in the lunar lowlands, and mountains and craters in the highlands.
2. Mountain ranges frequently act as borders.
3. Maria are mostly found in quadrant II.
Next, we looked at the formations of craters in relation to Mare and one another.
B)1. I would say that the crater came first, because the interior of the crater hole is a smooth surface, just as the mare is. I would say that the lava flow filled the crater and then cooled.
2. I believe that the mare came first in Kepler and Copernicus, because the interior of the crater is not smooth, and therefore impacted some time later.
3. For question one, two other examples could be Albetegnius and Aristoteles . For question two, two other examples are Eratosthenes and Timocharis.
4. It seems as though the lava stayed in pools, near the northern hemisphere. The craters are collected around them, and more concentrated towards the south.
C)
1. Most large craters have central peaks rather than small ones.
2. When overlapping occurs with craters
, the smaller craters appear younger. This is because the larger foreign body stroked second, it would have covered the smaller crater up.
3. I suspect that lunar craters are formed by large bodies of rock and ice that are hurtling through space. I believe that they are solid like this because of the central peaks that are formed after they hit the surface. They strike so hard that a small rebound effect occurs, causing these peaks.
Then we took a look at some of the highest points on the moon.
D)
1. Mons Huygens is the tallest mountain on the moon, with a height of 5.5 kilometers. However, the highest point on the moon is the Selenean Summit, which has a height of 17358 kilometers.
2. Most mountain ranges on the moon are curved. I believe that these mountain ranges are caused by asteroids that collided with the moon a long time ago. Something very large must have had to collide with the moon in order to form the huge maria we see today. The rims of these craters created the mountain ranges.
Next we surveyed the similarities and differences between the near and far sides of the moon.
E)
1. Some differences between the near and far side of the moon are that the far side has far less maria, and a lot more lightly shaded areas.
2. Some similarities between the near and far side of the moon are that both the north and south poles have far more impact craters than the center, and there are some darker areas that were most likely caused by lava flow.
3. The most prominent feature is the Aitkin Basin- or the South Pole. It is the largest, deepest basin on the moon. It is an impact crater, and I believe it was caused just how the others were- by a large solid mass impacting the surface of the moon.
4. There are many more small impact craters on the far side of the moon, while there are many larger craters on the near side.
5. The craters on the near side of the moon seem to be a tad misshapen and more faded than those on the far side. On the far side, they are more perfectly rounded and pronounced.
For the next portion of the lab, we compared the Moon and Mars, taking into consideration the different formations on each.
F)
1. Some major similarities between the Moon and Mars are the many impact craters and large Maria that they both possess.
2. However, their differences include that their highlands and lowlands are located on opposite poles of the planet, and that there is a lack of mountain ranges on Mercury.
3. I think that there are maria on Mercury because there are still active volcanos, like there ones was on the Moon. There are also many impact craters because it's located in space and there a lot of small flying rocks out there.
We then studied the locations of each Apollo mission to the Moon, making conclusions about why each place was chosen.
G) 1. This was the first landing on the moon, and the landing spot was pretty simple, with a larger impact crater not too far away. This is the Little West crater, and Neil Armstrong ran to it from the landing site. This way, with the limited amount of time they had and distance they could cover, they were able to view a crater and set up small experiments on the moon.
2. The second landing was in Oceanus Procellarum, which gave the astronauts the ability to stand in a large mare. They also took rocks from the moon on this visit, which helped them study the geology of rocks from there.
3. Apollo 14 was not far from 12, and was located inside the same mare. However, this one was closer to the edge of a mare, so it was probable that they could collect different samples of rock.
4. The Apollo 15 landing was on a mountain range in the Northern Hemisphere. This would be very good for measuring altitudes and potentially collecting different rock samples.
5. For Apollo 16, the reason to land where they did was to explore and excavate the North Ray crater, which was a very young crater that was highly reflective. The landing site was a bit farther away, however, because there is much larger debris closer to the crater.
6. Apollo 17 landed on the edge of a mare, and I think with new technology, they wanted to create new experiments that included both highlands and mare. They landed where there were few craters, which seems to be the theme.
Lastly, we looked at 3 Luna Missions, and drew similar conclusions as with Apollo.
H)
1. Luna 16 is found in the Mare Fecunditatis which is obviously lower elevation, and they probably picked this spot to gain samples of the bottom of a mare for examination.
2. Luna 17 landed in the Mare Imbrium, near the Montes Jura. This was most likely chosen because of its close proximity to both high lands and low lands.
3. Luna 21 landed on the right side of the Mare Serentatis, near the border. This, like the others, was probably chosen for it's proximity to different altitudes.
In conclusion, the Moon has many different formations on it's surface that are important to observe in order to draw conclusions about how it was formed. The date of certain formations can be found, and we can relate these conclusions to ideas we have about Earth's history as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment