3/5/2012

| Haley Moore & Alexis Willis

BARK ABOUT THE MOON

2

Table of Contents

Page Content

1…………………………………………………………………………………… How the Moon was formed

2…………………………………………………………………………………… The Moon’s composition

3…………………………………………………………………………………… Moon phases

4……………………………………………………………………………… The Moons size and distance from the Earth

5………………………………………………………………………..…………. Advertisement

6…………………………………………………………………………………… The effect of the Moon on the Earth

7…………………………………………………………………………………… Moon Facts

8……………………………………………………………………………………. Advertisement

9……………………………………………………………………………………. Buzz Aldrin

10………………………………………………………………………………… ..Advertisement

3

How the moon was formed: Although no one can say for sure exactly how our moon came to be, there a

few hypothesis and theories of which the ‘the giant impact theory’ is the most compelling and widely

accepted. In this theory, the Earth had no moon until it was struck by a rogue planet which instantly

vaporized. The impact is said to have created a cloud that reached roughly 13,700 miles or 22,000

kilometers high, where it condensed into solid particles that orbited the Earth. Over time they aggregated

into larger moonlets, which eventually combined to form the moon we know today.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin photographed by Neil

Armstrong during the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969.

The Apollo missions brought back 2196 rock samples weighing 382 kg in total. On the moon, there is

no wind or water. The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth.

4

Because the Moon is composed mostly of

material from Earth, one would expect that it is

made of the same elements we find on Earth. To

a large extent, that is the case. But because the

material resulting from the Giant Impact was

thrown out into space in a super heated state and

it took time to coalesce into a single object which

became the Moon, all of the volatile elements

(those that were not chemically locked into

heavy compounds) were blown away by the solar wind.

Oxygen 42.6%

Magnesium 20.8%

Silicon 20.5%

Iron 9.9%

Calcium 2.31%

Aluminum 0.472%

Nickel 0.314%

Chromium 0.131%

Manganese 0.122%

Titanium

The moons composition: 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 breccia. Basalt is formed from hardened

lava and is made of feldspar, proxene and ilmenite crystals. These minerals were formed at 2200

degrees, which proves that the moon was extremely hot when it was forming. Breccia 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.

5

The recognized phases are: new moon, waxing crescent moon, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full

moon, waning gibbous, last quarter and waning crescent moon. That means there are eight

phases of the moon.

Moon Phases:

6

The moons size and distance from the earth: Since the moon's orbit is elliptical (oval-shaped), its

distance varies from about 221,463 miles (356,334 kilometers) at perigee (closest approach to

Earth) to 251,968 miles (405,503 kilometers) at apogee (farthest point). The average distance

from the moon to the Earth is 238,857 miles (384,392 kilometers). The diameter of the Moon is

only 3,474 km across. Just for comparison, the diameter of the Earth at the equator is 12,756 km.

That’s only 27% the diameter of the Earth. The Moon is also the 5th largest moon in the Solar

System, after Ganymede, Titan,

Callisto and Io.

The average distance

between Earth and Moon is

approximately 30 times

Earth's diameter

The Moon completes its orbit

around the Earth in

approximately 27.3 days (a

sidereal month).

7

8

The effect of the moon on the earth: The gravitational attraction that the Moon exerts on Earth is

the cause of tides in the sea. The tidal flow period is synchronized to the Moon's orbit around

Earth, but the phase isn't. The tidal bulges on Earth, caused by the Moon's gravity, are carried

ahead of the apparent position of the Moon by the Earth's rotation, in part because of the friction

of the water as it slides over the ocean bottom and into or out of bays and estuaries. As a result,

some of the Earth's rotational momentum is gradually being transferred to the Moon's orbital

momentum, resulting in the Moon slowly receding from Earth at the rate of approximately 38

mm per year. At the same time the Earth's ro tation is gradually slowing, the Earth's day thus

lengthens by about 15 µs every year.

9

The moon is not a planet, but a satellite of the Earth.

The surface area of the moon is 14,658,000 square miles or 9.4 billion acres

Only 59% of the moon's surface is visible from earth.

The moon rotates at 10 miles per hour compared to the earth's rotation of 1000 miles per hour.

When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is called a blue moon. Another

definition of a blue moon is the third full moon in any season (quarter of year) containing 4 total

full moons.

From Earth, we always see the same side of the moon; the other side is always hidden.

The dark spots we see on the moon that create the image of the man in the moon are actually

craters filled with basalt, which is a very dense material.

The moon is the only extraterrestrial body that has ever been visited by humans. It is also the only

body that has had samples taken from it.

The first space craft to send back pictures from the moon was Luna 3 (built by the Soviet Union)

in October 1959.

The moon has no global magnetic field.

The moon is about 1/4 the size of the Earth.

10

11

Since retiring from NASA and the Air Force, Col.

Aldrin has remained at the forefront of efforts to

ensure America’s continued leadership in human

space exploration. He devised a master plan for

missions to Mars – the “Aldrin Mars Cycler” – a

spacecraft transportation system with perpetual

cycling orbits between Earth and Mars. Dr. Aldrin

has received three US patents for his rocket systems

and schematics.

Buzz Aldrin was born in Montclair, New Jersey on

January 20, 1930. His mother, Marion Moon, was

the daughter of an Army Chaplain. His father,

Edwin Eugene Aldrin, was a Colonel in the Air

Force, a Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT), and an aviation pioneer.

Buzz was educated at the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating third in his class with

a B.S. in mechanical engineering. He then joined the Air Force where he flew F86 Sabre Jets in

66 combat missions in Korea, shot down two MIG-15′s, and was decorated with the

Distinguished Flying Cross. After a tour of duty in Germany flying F100’s, he went on to earn

his Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at MIT and wrote his thesis on Manned Orbital

Rendezvous. Selected by NASA in 1963 into the third group of astronauts, Aldrin was the first

with a doctorate and became known as “Dr. Rendezvous.” The docking and rendezvous

techniques he devised for spacecraft in Earth and lunar orbit became critical to the success of the

Gemini and Apollo programs, and are still used today. He also pioneered underwater training

techniques, as a substitute for zero gravity flights, to simulate spacewalking.

In 1966, on the Gemini 12 orbital mission, Buzz performed the world’s first successful

spacewalk, overcoming prior difficulties experienced in all American and Russian extra-

vehicular activity (EVA), and set a new EVA record of 5 ½ hours.

Then, on July 20, 1969, Buzz and Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk,

becoming the first two humans to set foot on another world. They spent 21 hours on the lunar

surface and returned with 46 pounds of moon rocks. The largest worldwide television audience

– an estimated 600 million people, witnessed this unprecedented heroic endeavor.

12