The Moon

Question 1

What is the volume of the moon relative to Earth

Answer 1

0.02 Ve

Question 2

what is the rate of increase of the Moons distance from the Earth

Answer 2

38mm per year

The earths day correspondingly lengthens by 15 microseconds per year

Question 3

What is the name of the current mission exploring the Moon’s Gravity

Answer 3

Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)

which consists of two small spacecraft GRAIL A (Ebb) and GRAIL B (Flow)

Question 4

What are the mission names of the Chinese lunar probes

What is the name of the rover?

Answer 4

Chang’e

named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon

Chang’e 3 is due to launch in late 2013 and will include China’s first lunar rover and the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976

Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”)

Question 5

What is the average distance from the Earth to the Moon

Answer 5

384,399 km

Its perigee is 363k and its apogee is 406k (rounded up)

Question 6

What are the two adjectives used pertaining to the moon

Answer 6

lunar

selenic (deriving from Selene, Goddess of the moon)

also leads to prefix seleno

Question 7

What is the Orbital Period of the Moon

What is the Synodic Period of the Moon (what is the latter?)

Answer 7

27 days 7hrs 43mins

Syn: 29 days 12 hours 44mins

The latter is essentially the time between full moons (it differs from the Orbital period, because it takes into account the Earths orbit around the Sun as well)

Lunar months therefore tend to be 29 or 30 days

Question 8

What is the mass of the moon in Earth masses

Answer 8

0.0123 Me

Question 9

What is the name of the largest crator on the moon, and actually the largest known in the Solar System

Answer 9

the Aitken basin (2,240km in diameter) (It constitutes the majority of the South Pole on the dark side)

Question 10

What is the density of the Moon

Answer 10

3.3464 g/cm^3

second densist moon after Io

Question 11

How many moons are bigger than the moon in the Solar System

Answer 11

4

Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Io

It is therefore the 5th largest moon

The 6th largest is Europa

Question 12

Can you pick out:

Sea of Serenity

Sea of Tranquiility

Sea of Showers (Mare Imbrium)

Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum)

Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium)

Sea of Fertility (Mare Fecunditatis)

Sea of Nector

Any other major features not mentioned (e.g. Tycho?)

Question 13

What is the unique gravitional feature of the moon

Answer 13

It is the only body with greater gravitation attraction to the Sun than its primary (i.e. the earth)

Question 14

What was the first man made object to reach the surface of the moon

When did it arrive

Answer 14

Luna 2 (in Sep 1959)

Question 15

What is the Diameter of the Moon

Answer 15

3476km

Question 16

In the Giant impact hypothesis what is the name of the object that hits Earth and leads to the formation of the moon (btw this theory is currently being questioned)

Answer 16

Theia

Question 17

What is the name of the Russian remote control rovers landed on the moon in the 70s

Answer 17

Lunokhod (there were two of them in 1970, 73)

Question 18

What spacecraft series did NASA land on the moon in preparation for the Apollo landings.

How many spacecraft were in the programme

Which spacecraft was actually visited by Apollo astronauts (which mission)

Answer 18

Surveyor (1966 - 1968)

7 robotic spacecraft

Apollo 12’s Lunar Module Intrepid landed 600 feet from Surveyor 3, as planned

See Pete Conrad near it in pic below

Question 19

What was the US probe series responsible for taking the the first close up images of the moon

Answer 19

Ranger

Question 20

What was the first lunar geological period

from which it should be easy to guess the second (and why is it was named as such) (when was it?)

What period followed this?

Answer 20

Pre-Nectarian Period

Necterian Period (the period when the Nectaris Basin was formed by a large impact) - 3.9 - 3.85 byr ago

This was followed by the Imbrian Period

Question 21

What was the Lunar geological epoch that spanned from 3.85 - 3.8byrs ago

what was named after

what basins formed in this period

what happened after?

Answer 21

(Early) Imbrian

named after the Mare Imbrian (the result of being hit by 250km impactor) that was created at the beginning of the period

Crisium, Tranquility and Serenity, Fecunitatis and Procellarum were formed during this period - which corresponds with the end of the Late Heavy Bombardment

Then during the Late Imbrian 3.8 - 3.2 byr ago, the mantle partially melted and filled in the mares with basalt - The melting is thought to have occurred because the impacts of the Early Imbrian thinned the overlying rock - either causing the mantle to rise because of the reduced pressure on it, bringing molten material closer to the surface; or the top melting as heat flowed upwards through the mantle because of reduced overlying thermal insulation.

Question 22

What is the name of the Lunar Geological Period between 3.2 and 1.1 billion years ago

What Period followed it the present day

what are they named after

Answer 22

Eratosthenian

Copernican

named after lunar craters which formed in these periods

Question 23

What is the largest Mare associated with an impact event

Answer 23

Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains)

Created by an impactor estimated at 250 km across

Question 24

Who named most of the Mares on the moon

Answer 24

Giovanni Riccioli

whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized

Question 25

Which is the largest of the moon’s maria (lava plains)

How did it form?

Which Apollo mission landed there?

Answer 25

Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms)

= 4 million sq km

10.5% of lunar area

Actually its unknown how it formed

it could have been from a giant impactor, inhomogeneous heating during the moon’s formation or even the late accretion of a companian moon on the far side!

Apollo 12 landed there.

Question 26

How commanded Apollo 12 and where did they land

Answer 26

Pete Conrad on Oceanus Procellarun