The-Moon

The Moon

The Moon is Earth's closest neighbour in space and looms larger any other object in the night sky.Its cratered surface may be cold and lifeless,but deep inside the moon is a gigantic ball of white hot iron.
Earth and moon have existed together in space ever since the moon formed as the result of a cosmic collision. It orbit around our planet keeping the same face towards us at all times. As we gaze on it sunit surface,we look at a landscape that has barely changed since 3.5billion years ago. Back then, the young moon was bombarded by asteroids. For millions of years they blasted out surface material and formed craters. The largest of these were then flooded with volcanic lava, creating dark,flat plains that look like seas.

 Lunar craters 

  Craters exist all over the moon. They range from small bowl shaped hollows a few kilometres wide to the vast south pole aitken basin,which is 2,500 km (1,600males)in diameter. Many craters,like Eratosthenes have central hills that formed as the ground rebounded after the asteroid strick.

 Man on the moon

  Astronauts landed on the moon six times during NASA's Apollo programme. They found a world of grey,dusty plains and rolling hills under and back sky. Below,an astronaut heads back to his rover vehicle parked near Camelot crater where he had been collecting samples. The large boulders were flung out of the crater when it formed.

Lunar layers 

  Like Earth, the moon is made of different layers that separated out long ago,when whole interior was molten. Lightweight minerals rose to the top, and heavier metals sank to the sentre. The outermost layer is a thin crust of rock like the rock on earth. Under this is the mantle a deep layer of rock that gets hotter towards the centre. The bottom part of the mantle is partly molten. In the moon's centre is an iron core heated to about 1,400°C (2,600°F)by energy from radioactive elements. Scientist think the outer cover is molten but the inner core is squeezed solid by the pressure of the rock around it.

 Hadley Rille 

  A steep gorge named Hadley Rille cuts through flat plains at the edge of the moon's sea of showers, winding for more than 100 km (60 miles). How it formed is a mystery, but it might be an ancient lava channel. In July 1971, Apollo astronaut drove their rover to the edge of Hadley Rille to take photographs and study it.
How the Moon formed
Scientists think the moon formed as a result of a collision between Earth and a planet 4.5billion years ago. The debris was pulled together by gravity and became the moon.

 The far side 

The Moon keeps the same face towards Earth all the time. The face we never see the far side can only be viewed by spacecraft. Its crust is thicker and more heavily cratered then near side. Elevation maps reveal high and low areas of land

 Moon profile 

  Diameter.................3,474 km (2,159 miles)
Average surfaces temperature.....-53°C (-63°F)
Length of lunar day.........27 Earth days
Time to orbit Earth...........27 Earth days
Gravity (Earth=1)................0.17