Table of Contents
- 1 How were the craters on the moon formed?
- 2 What are the light spots on the moon called?
- 3 Where has frozen water been detected on the Moon?
- 4 Why can’t we see the backside of the Moon?
- 5 Is the moon hot?
- 6 What causes the dark spots on the lunar surface?
- 7 How did we get the first look at the Moon?
- 8 How was the Moon formed?
How were the craters on the moon formed?
These are impact craters, each of which was formed when an asteroid or comet collided with the Moon’s surface. The large number of craters in this region indicates that this part of the Moon is quite ancient. Geologic processes have not erased the craters with time.
What are the light spots on the moon called?
It is divided into light areas called the Lunar Highlands and darker areas called Maria (literally, “seas”; the singular is Mare).
Do meteors still hit the Moon?
A lunar meteorite is a meteorite that is known to have originated on the Moon. A meteorite hitting the Moon is normally classified as a transient lunar phenomenon….Lunar meteorite.
| Lunar meteorite (Lunaite) | |
|---|---|
| Type | Achondrite |
| Subgroups | Highland breccia Mare basalt |
| Parent body | Moon |
| Total known specimens | 306 |
Where has frozen water been detected on the Moon?
Gradually water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. Scientists have found water ice in the cold, permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s poles. Water molecules are also present in the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.
Why can’t we see the backside of the Moon?
As the Earth is much larger than the Moon, the Moon’s rotation is slowed down until it reaches a balance point. As this NASA animation shows (right), this means that the same portion of the Moon always faces towards the Earth, and we can never see the far side.
What would happen if the moon was destroyed?
Destroying the Moon would send debris to Earth, but it might not be life-exterminating. If the blast were weak enough, the debris would re-form into one or more new moons; if it were too strong, there would be nothing left; of just the right magnitude, and it would create a ringed system around Earth.
Is the moon hot?
Temperatures on the moon are very hot in the daytime, about 100 degrees C. At night, the lunar surface gets very cold, as cold as minus 173 degrees C. This wide variation is because Earth’s moon has no atmosphere to hold in heat at night or prevent the surface from getting so hot during the day.
What causes the dark spots on the lunar surface?
The dark spots on the lunar surface are actually craters of varying sizes that formed due to collisions from celestial bodies, such as comets, meteorites and asteroids in the past, which left large, excavated holes after the impact.
What does the Moon’s surface look like?
Discover how a surface mottled with dark patches reveals the Moon’s volcanic past. The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’.
How did we get the first look at the Moon?
The Moon’s Surface. From lunar orbit, astronauts pointed cameras out the window of their spacecraft to capture photos of the moon’s surface. The closest look we’ve had at the moon came from the launch of NASA’s Apollo program in the 1960s. Between 1967 and 1972, a series of missions landed the first men on the moon.
How was the Moon formed?
It proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of Mars. The debris from this impact collected in an orbit around Earth to form the Moon. The Apollo missions brought back over a third of a tonne of rock and soil from the Moon.