Utut
The Moon - Introduction
Its hard to imagine the history of Earth without our Moon. For as long as man walked this Earth, the Moon served as "lesser light for the night" and faithful time-piece. The phases of the Moon were used to help guide the Harvest, or help determine the time of the river floods.
How our Moon came to existence is still under speculation. There are several possible scenarios:
Fission Theory - the Earth spinning so fast during early formation that a piece broke off forming the Moon
Capture Theory - the Moon formed elsewhere passed close to Earth and was captured
Co-Creation Theory - the Earth and Moon formed and evolved together
Collisional Ejection Theory - a large piece impacted the Earth and broke off pieces of the Earth and formed the Moon
The current champion of the Collisional Ejection Theory: Solar System formation was a volatile environment and collisions were common place. If the Moon and Earth formed together, the orbit of the Moon would be more circular and liberation (the "wobble" of the Moon) would not be a factor. Also, Moon rock does contain some "non-Earth" type rock while also having some "Earth-like" features.
Conclusions
The main features of the Moon are impact craters spanning the full range of sizes and large scale basaltic lava flows with associated channels and faulting. The very slow rate of erosion, limited lateral movement of debris, and lack of surface cover such as vegetation have preserved and left visible landforms dating back billions of years and thus make the Moon very useful for studying the early history of the Solar System.
References
Masursky, Harold; Colton, G. W. & El-Baz, Farouk (eds.), Apollo over the Moon: A View from Orbit, NASA SP-362, 1978. Online Version
Introduction
The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth and formed at about the same time, over four and a half billion years ago, but has not evolved in the same way. Lacking an atmosphere, water and life, and having
Its hard to imagine the history of Earth without our Moon. For as long as man walked this Earth, the Moon served as "lesser light for the night" and faithful time-piece. The phases of the Moon were used to help guide the Harvest, or help determine the time of the river floods.
How our Moon came to existence is still under speculation. There are several possible scenarios:
Fission Theory - the Earth spinning so fast during early formation that a piece broke off forming the Moon
Capture Theory - the Moon formed elsewhere passed close to Earth and was captured
Co-Creation Theory - the Earth and Moon formed and evolved together
Collisional Ejection Theory - a large piece impacted the Earth and broke off pieces of the Earth and formed the Moon
The current champion of the Collisional Ejection Theory: Solar System formation was a volatile environment and collisions were common place. If the Moon and Earth formed together, the orbit of the Moon would be more circular and liberation (the "wobble" of the Moon) would not be a factor. Also, Moon rock does contain some "non-Earth" type rock while also having some "Earth-like" features.
Conclusions
The main features of the Moon are impact craters spanning the full range of sizes and large scale basaltic lava flows with associated channels and faulting. The very slow rate of erosion, limited lateral movement of debris, and lack of surface cover such as vegetation have preserved and left visible landforms dating back billions of years and thus make the Moon very useful for studying the early history of the Solar System.
References
Masursky, Harold; Colton, G. W. & El-Baz, Farouk (eds.), Apollo over the Moon: A View from Orbit, NASA SP-362, 1978. Online Version
Introduction
The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth and formed at about the same time, over four and a half billion years ago, but has not evolved in the same way. Lacking an atmosphere, water and life, and having
References: Masursky, Harold; Colton, G. W. & El-Baz, Farouk (eds.), Apollo over the Moon: A View from Orbit, NASA SP-362, 1978. Online Version Introduction