Moon lab To Submit
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Nassau Community College *
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Course
101
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Geology
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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docx
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Moon lab using Google Moon Introduction
Download google earth pro onto your computer.
Launch the file that has been downloaded, do not use google earth on the web as it will not let you run google moon.
On the tool bar click on the icon that looks like the planet Saturn (see below). It will give you a drop- down box which will allow you to go to google moon.
Go to View and make sure that the boxes for grid, and scale legend are checked (check them if they are not). The grid that appears on the moon is co-ordinate of longitude and latitude. We can find the position of a feature (crater, rille, basin, maria) on the moon via its longitude and latitude in a similar way to how we find a city on the Earth. The prime meridian on the moon is in
the center of the moon that is facing the Earth.
When the application opens you will view the full moon as seen from the Earth, we call this the near side of the moon. Using your mouse turn the moon so that you can see the far side of the moon.
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1) Compare the near side to the far side of the moon. Tell me how they differ in terms of maria and craters.
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The two sides of the Moon are quite different in appearance, with several huge maria covering the near side. The other side looks beaten up and cratered with very few maria.
The crust is thought to be much thinner on the near side compared to the far side. More craters may be seen on the moon's far side than on its near side. °
2) If there are differences in the distribution and numbers of maria and craters seen on each side of the moon, give a theory as to why this occurred.
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Asteroids and meteorites create lunar craters. The Moon lacks an atmosphere like Earth.
It has no volcanoes or weathering, so its billion-year-old craters stay intact. Since the near side was created millions of years ago, it has more maria, while the far side has more craters since it is regularly battered by asteroids and meteorites. Earth protects the
near side.The close crust is thinner than the distant crust. Craters are more noticeable on the moon's far side.
Re-center the moon so that you can see the prime meridian and the equator intersect near the center of your screen. There is a bright rayed crater near the co-ordinates 10° N and 20° W. This is crater Copernicus, notice the bright rays of this crater. Turn the moon and zoom in slightly so that you can see this crater and two other craters nearby that also have bright rays.
3) Find the names of these two craters, to do this you just move your mouse to the crater and zoom in until you see the name, record it below and then zoom out and find the second crater’s name and record it below.
Kepler and Tycho Zoom out slightly and look at these craters, you can see that the rays extend over al large area on the moon.
4) If these impacts had occurred on the Earth the rays would not be as extensive as they are on the moon. There are two possible explanations for this. State what you believe they are and explain how they would account for the differences between the ray systems on the Earth and the moon.
The moon contains craters from space rocks. These are solar system asteroids and comets. They strike the surface.Since the moon has no atmosphere, even a little pebble will form a crater.The energy of a space rock liquefies the surface and ejects material into space. Since the
moon has no atmosphere, the debris shoots out and settles far from the impact.Bright rays around the lunar crater indicate a recent impact less than 500 million years ago. Fresh impact-
ejected material on the lunar surface darkens with time. The crater bottom has lunar dust and dirt boulders. Earth's thick atmosphere burns most small meteorites. Wind, water, and flora quickly remove craters on Earth. Plate tectonics destroys most major craters. However, lunar craters are permanent. Earth's ray centers are smaller than the moon's because the geography and atmosphere slow shockwave propagation.
Finding Features on the Moon
You can find a feature on the moon by typing its name into the search box on the upper left-
hand side of your screen (see figure above). Type the name of the feature like, Copernicus and then click the search button. The computer will zoom into the very center of the feature so you will need to zoom out slowly until you can see the feature. Record the co-ordinates in the table below.
Go to tools on the main menu and click on ruler. A dialog box will open as seen in the figure below. Click on the line tab (even though it defaults to this), then on in the box with the units you
will see a drop-down arrow which will allow you to change the units to miles. On the moon double click your mouse on one side of the crater and then draw a line across the crater until you reach the other side of the crater. Record the value in the data table.
You can also find the depth of a crater by clicking on the 3-D path tab in the dialog box. Start at the upper edge of the crater rim and double click your mouse there. Move your mouse down to the bottom of the crater wall and the depth of the crater will be given. (Make sure that your units are still in miles.) To do this make sure that you can clearly see the bottom of the crater wall as well as the top of the wall and then record your data in the table below.
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To find the length of a rille (rima on google moon) you will nee to use the path tool. Start at the edge of the rille near the crater and click points along the winding path of the rille until you reach
the end.
5) Fill in the table below for the features named. For the last two measure along the longest axis
where you have clear view of each edge. Note that you cannot obtain a depth for the mare (the last two features in the table).
Feature Name
Copernicus, Kepler, Theophilus, Rima Hadley, Mare Crisium, Sinus Iridum
Longitude
Copernicus 20° W, Kepler 8°N, Theophilus 11.4°S, Rima Hadley 25.0°N, Mare Crisium 17.0°N, Sinus Iridum 45.01°N
Latitude
Copernicus 9° 30’ N, Kepler 38°W, Theophilus 26.4° E, Rima Hadley 3.0°E, Mare Crisium 59.1°E, Sinus Iridum 31.67°W
Size (Miles)
Copernicus 58.84, Kepler 19.8, Theophilus 62.1, Rima Hadley 49.7, Mare Crisium 345.4, Sinus Iridum 154.7
Depth (Miles)
Copernicus 11.7, Kepler 1.6, Theophilus 1.9, Rima Hadley ?, Mare Crisium ?, Sinus Iridum ?
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6) Looking at the depths of the three craters which of these was formed by the largest force of impact.
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The greatest impact produced Theophilus Crater, the deepest crater with a depth of 1.98
miles.
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7) Give me two possible explanation for how a greater force of impact could occur.
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Two techniques may increase impact force. Two objects at different speeds collide. When two objects contact at different speeds, their kinetic energy is changed into potential energy, which becomes kinetic energy when they rebound at the same speed. If you dropped a rock from a cliff while holding another rock and let go such that both rocks fell to Earth simultaneously, the first rock would reach the ground first since it had higher velocity. If both boulders hit and bounced away from each other and back toward Earth, part of their kinetic energy would have been transformed into potential energy.
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Newton's third law states: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." If two items clash and one pushes or pulls hard enough. The greatest impact created the 1.98-mile-deep Theophilus crater.
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Finding information from an image
This image is an image of the area around Crater Copernicus, labeled A on the image. Answer the following questions using your notes as reference.
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8) On google moon center on crater Copernicus then zoom out until you see the crater labeled B in the image. Using the ruler measure the distance from the center to center of
each crater in miles.
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The distance between the centers of Crater Copernicus and Eratosthenes is 185.44 miles, or Point A and Point B.
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9) Identify the type of feature that is labeled C. Explain how it may have formed.
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At coordinate C, you'll find Stadius. Ghost craters are so faint that just their outlines may be seen clearly. It was produced when a stream of basaltic lava completely filled the crater. Smaller craters may be seen inside and around the larger one, and they may have been made by subsequent meteors or asteroids.
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10) The feature labeled D is a series of small indentations. Give me two possible ways in which these could have formed. Make sure that you name the type of feature as well as describe its origin.
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On Google Moon, Point D is known as Rima Stadius. A lengthy sequence of narrow depressions on the moon's surface are called rima/rille, the German term for grooves. A crustal fracture on the moon's surface might be to blame for this sequence of depressions, since it would induce the collapse of the surface structure and result in the formation of several tiny craters. As an alternative explanation, the crater-like indentations might be magma vents from lava flows on the moon's surface.
General Questions
11) Of the three main types of rocks found on the Earth Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic; which one is not found on the moon and why?
These rocks are made of sediment. The moon does not have any water on it, according to space exploration and other pertinent scientific research. Sedimentary rocks form when sediments are deposited in areas where they get trapped and buried, where they are then subjected to pressure and cementation. 12) Moon rocks have been dated to be older than the oldest rocks found on the Earth. Give three reasons why moon rocks are older than Earth rocks. Firstly, Scientists have determined that the moon is far more ancient than our planet.
Second, most of the rocks on the moon have not been eroded since there are fewer endogenic and exogenic processes and no lakes of water. Rocks undergo metamorphism and their ages are reset as a result of the multiple endogenic and exogenic processes occurring on Earth.
Thirdly, There are rocks on the moon that came from space as a result of an explosion or the collision of two planets. Space junk has an easy time settling on the moon's surface because of the moon's lack of an atmosphere.