You may be using an old file... the up to date vesion is on GithubSource: Wikepedia The moon. The big piece of rock flying through the sky. The host of the lady on it. An endless supply of cheese. A common symbol of many myths. How did such a thing come to creation? What is it really? With the tools of our handy simulation (to the left), we shall explore such questions, about what exactly is the flying sphere of light in the sky made of.
Giant Impact HypothesisFission Hypothesis So, how did this thing come to be? Modern reaserchers have theorized that the moon was cause by a planet, about the size of Mars, colliding with the Earth. The ejecta, or debree from the impact, was sent flying into space. In space, the ejecta started clumping togetjer due to gravity, and our moon was born, according to the widely accepted Giant Impact Hypothesis.
Additionally, the Fission Hypothesis proposes the the moon was once part of the Earth like the Giant Imact Hypothesis. People thought that perhaps the moon was created by a rapidly spinning Earth, where the spin was so fast that it yeated pieces of it's rock to space, where it became the moon. However, there is no evidence of such rapid spin.
However, reaserch has concluded that the Moon has a similar composition to that of Earth, and rocks such as Anorthosite, does support the fact that the Moon was at some point in time, part of the Earth.
Lunar maria are the large, dark basaltic plains you see on the moon, specifically the side that always faces Earth. If you will, look at the simulation (in view 1) and see the dark spots on the moon? That's the lunar maria. Lunar maria (mare for singular) are also called the oceans of the moon, as it does look like oceans.
The lunar regolith is about 4-5 meters thick in mare regions, but could reach 10-15 in highland areas. It contains all sized from large boulders to sub-micron dust particles. Lunar soil is often used interchangably with lunar regolith, however it's only defined as the top layer to the regolith.
Lunar soil is a misleading term. Here on Earth, the soil is full of rich organic matter, whereas on the Moon, there is no organic matter. The Lunar soil is defined as the sub-centimeter layer of the lunar regolith. It is not sorted in any way, such as shape, size, or chemistry, unlike Earth, where it is sorted into layers.
Craters are, in simple terms, a dent caused by a foreign object, or an asteroid colliding with the body the crater is on. Asteroids are pieces of rock left over from the formation of our solar system, with no clear aim, drifting in space. Ocasionally, they get nocked of course and crashes into a something else, such as the Earth. When the asteroid reaches the Earth's atmosphere, it becomes a commonly known name, a meteor. Due to friction and heat generated, most meteors burn up in the atmosphere. Some lucky few manage to reach the surface, and are dubbed meteroites. The moon is an entirely different case however, as there is no atmosphere. The lack of atmosphere results in more asteroids reaching the surface, and creating many more craters. In the model, you can look and see the many craters that are scattered throughout the moon.
The handy picture above tells us what the moon is exactly made of. Similar to Earth, the moon's (rock) composition is mostly made up of oxygen. Other elements such as Aluminum and Silicon are also similar. This is one of the reasons why theories such as the Great Impact Theory exists, due to the suprisingly similar composition between the two astral bodies.
The moon has multiple layers in it. The first layer would be the crust, similar to Earth. The crust averages to 42 miles in thickness.
Next would be the mantle (sounding familiar?). Like Earth, the mantle is the largest portion, up to 825 miles thick.
To round it all off, it would be the core. It is likely that a core exists, but it would be very small, and is not able to generate it's own magnetic field, like the Earth's core can. It is estimated to be just 1% to 2% of the moon's mass and roughly 420 miles (680 km) wide. It also likely contains mostly iron, like the Earth's core
Vocabulary
Credits:
This was a science project made by Coderz75 using the Threejs library. A call out to Actiniumn404 for css help!. I hope you like it!
Many sources was used for this project:
If you really want, here's it in boring old list form
