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PHYS 1404: Chapter 20 – The Moon and Mercury: Comparing Airless Worlds – Assignment
© 2018-2023 Lone Star College. All Rights Reserved.
Write your Name.
Do not alter header or question numbers. Abide by LSC Academic Integrity.
Name: Alexis Diaz
1.
Explain why we always see the same face of the moon?
the period of rotation of the moon on its axis is equal to the period of its
revolution around the earth.
2.
What is Regolith and how was it formed?
loose, unconsolidated rock, mineral
and glass fragments in the soil
3.
Which are older, the lunar highlands or the lowlands?
How do you know this?
the lunar highlands, and because maximal cratering density
4.
How many people have walked on the surface of the moon?
12 men
5.
What do breccias tell you about the history of the moon?
Explain.
After the molten rock solidified, meteorite impacts broke up the rocks and
fused them together time after time
6.
Both the Earth and the moon have igneous rocks.
Explain how can you tell them
apart?
Earth rocks contain one to two percent water while moon rocks
contain minimal or no water
7.
What is the significance of the bubbles in vesicular basalt rocks?
The vesicular nature of some of the basalts shows that these rocks formed in
lava flows that reached the surface and did not solidify underground
8.
Name and describe the theory that best explains the origin of the moon.
The theory that best describes the moon's origin is called the collision-ring
theory . Scientific theories that a planet-sized object collided with Earth to
form the moon
.
PHYS 1404: Chapter 20 – The Moon and Mercury: Comparing Airless Worlds – Assignment
© 2018-2023 Lone Star College. All Rights Reserved.
Write your Name.
Do not alter header or question numbers. Abide by LSC Academic Integrity.
9.
Where did the first manned lunar landing occur?
the Sea of Tranquility
Where did the last one occur?
July 20th
10. One full day on Mercury (from sunrise to sunrise) lasts
176
Earth days, and one
year on Mercury is
88
Earth days.
11. Is the surface of Mercury always hotter than the surface of the Earth? Explain
Mercury is a lot closer to the Sun, Because Mercury's escape speed is so low,
it has no atmosphere, which means that no greenhouse effect and no
convection can take place to stabilize its surface temperature.
12.
What are four shared common characteristics of the Moon and Mercury?
Both the Moon and Mercury are about the same in size. Both have impact
craters from meteors. Both have regions that have visible craters.
13. Go to “Current events” tab and read the link “A Closer Look at Mercury’s Spin
and Gravity Reveals the Planet’s Inner Solid Core
”.
Write 10 – 15 sentence
summary of the article.
NASA scientists have discovered evidence that Mercury's inner core is solid
and nearly the same size as Earth's inner core. Mercury's metal core fills
nearly 85% of the planet's volume, making it an intriguing mystery. The
findings of Mercury's solid inner core may provide clues about how the solar
system formed and how rocky planets change over time. The team used data
from the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment,
Geochemistry and Ranging) mission to probe the interior of Mercury. They
looked at the planet's spin and gravity, using radio observations to determine
PHYS 1404: Chapter 20 – The Moon and Mercury: Comparing Airless Worlds – Assignment
© 2018-2023 Lone Star College. All Rights Reserved.
Write your Name.
Do not alter header or question numbers. Abide by LSC Academic Integrity.
gravitational anomalies and the location of its rotational pole. Mercury spins
much more slowly than Earth, with its day lasting about 58 Earth days.
Gravity can help answer the question of what the inner core is like, as it
depends on the planet's density structure. As MESSENGER orbited
Mercury, scientists recorded how the spacecraft accelerated under the
influence of the planet's gravity. The final low-altitude orbits provided the
best data yet, allowing for the most accurate measurements about the
internal structure of Mercury. The results showed that for the best match,
Mercury must have a large, solid inner core. They estimated that the solid,
iron core is about 1,260 miles wide and makes up about half of Mercury's
entire core. In contrast, Earth's solid core is about 1,500 miles across, taking
up a little more than a third of this planet's entire core.
14. Go to “Current events” tab and read the link “Massive anomaly within Earth's
mantle may be remnant of collision that formed moon
”.
Write 10 – 15 sentence
summary of the article.
An interdisciplinary international research team has discovered that a
massive anomaly deep within Earth's interior may be a remnant of the
collision about 4.5 billion years ago that formed the moon. The study, which
relied on computational fluid dynamics methods pioneered by Prof. Deng
Hongping of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, offers important new insights into Earth's internal
structure, its long-term evolution, and the formation of the inner solar
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PHYS 1404: Chapter 20 – The Moon and Mercury: Comparing Airless Worlds – Assignment
© 2018-2023 Lone Star College. All Rights Reserved.
Write your Name.
Do not alter header or question numbers. Abide by LSC Academic Integrity.
system.Previous theory suggested that a massive collision occurred between
primordial Earth (Gaia) and a Mars-sized proto-planet known as Theia,
during the late stages of Earth's growth approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
The moon is believed to have formed from the debris generated by this
collision. However, high-precision isotope measurements later revealed that
the compositions of the Earth and moon are remarkably similar, thus
challenging the conventional theory of moon formation.To further refine the
theory of lunar formation, Prof. Deng began conducting research on the
moon's formation in 2017, focusing on developing a new computational fluid
dynamics method called Meshless Finite Mass (MFM). They discovered that
the early Earth exhibited mantle stratification after the impact, with the
upper and lower mantle having different compositions and states. This
mantle stratification may have persisted to the present day, corresponding to
the global seismic reflectors in the mid-mantle. Heterogeneity in the deep
mantle suggests that the Earth's interior is far from a uniform and "boring"
system. Geochemists studying isotope ratios of rare gases in samples of
Icelandic basalt have discovered components different from typical surface
materials, serving as keys to understanding Earth's initial state and even the
formation of nearby planets.
15. Go to “Current events” tab and read the link “Astronauts to live and work on the
moon by 2030, Nasa official says
”.
Write 10 – 15 sentence summary of the
article.
PHYS 1404: Chapter 20 – The Moon and Mercury: Comparing Airless Worlds – Assignment
© 2018-2023 Lone Star College. All Rights Reserved.
Write your Name.
Do not alter header or question numbers. Abide by LSC Academic Integrity.
NASA's Howard Hu, head of the Orion lunar spacecraft programme, has
announced that astronauts will be living and working on the moon for
"durations" before 2030. The mission will involve habitats and rovers to
support their work, with the spacecraft now about 83,000 miles from the
moon. The 98-metre Artemis rocket, topped with the Orion spacecraft, will
fly within 60 miles of the moon and continue for a further 40,000 miles before
aiming for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The
spacecraft will travel 1.3m miles on the 25-day mission, the farthest a
spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. A successful mission will pave the
way for follow-up Artemis 2 and 3 flights, both of which would send humans
around the moon and back. The Artemis 3 mission, which may not launch
until 2026, is expected to return humans to the surface of the moon for the
first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis programmed also
plans the construction of the Lunar Gateway, a space station where
astronauts will live and work as they orbit the moon.