-
-
---------------------1899 - The Far - Side of the Moon.
-
- The Moon orbit’s the Earth showing us only one face. No one saw the far-side until 1959, but, the photo-quality was so poor. The most that could be concluded is that it was very different than the near-side. The large dark maria were not as numerous. Maria is Latin for “ seas”. Instead its surface was mostly bright, rugged highlands, crisscrossed with rays from large, fresh craters.
-
- The Moon was two distinct hemispheres of individual character. The maria are ancient lava flows which erupted from the surface 3 billion years ago. The eruptions were caused by the heat from decaying radioactive elements deep under the surface. The heat melted the magnesium and iron-rich mantle producing liquid rock that covered the surface.
-
- The flowing magma formed giant impact features called “basins”. Some are more than 620 miles in diameter. The basins were caused by asteroids impacting the Moon some 4 billion years ago. The basins created fractures that allowed magma to break through to the surface.
-
- Impact craters and basins cover the entire surface. Not all basins are filled with lava. Something must have caused the volcanic flooding of almost all the near- side basins but only a few of the far-side basins.
-
- The Moon’s crust consists of aluminum and calcium rich rocks. The Moon must have been nearly totally molten covered by an ocean of magma in which these low density minerals floated to the surface. The denser iron-rich minerals became the “ mantle”. It was the mantle that slowly re-melted due to the heat from radioactive elements. This magma erupted as maria basalts.
-
- The Moon’s crust is some 20 miles thick similar to parts of Earth’s crust. The crust on the far-side is thicker than on the near-side. Also, the Moon’s center of mass is offset a couple miles in the direction of Earth. This is what likely caused the Moon’s rotation to synchronize with its orbit of Earth.
-
- The half-life of the radioactive elements is 4.5 billion years where by it decays to lead. The internal heat generated explains much of the surface, but, the rest is the result of a complex history of impacts, mare flooding, and other random geological events. We only partly understand why the near-side and far-side of the Moon are so different. Maybe the cow knows.
-
- Another strangness is the “giant in the room”. Compared with other rocky planets our Moon is so huge. It’s crust is also similar the Earth’s rock having the same oxygen isotopes. Minerals composed of sodium and calcium aluminum silicates are the same as Earth’s curst.
-
- The Moon’s formation occurred 4.6 billion years ago when two planets occupied the same orbit around the Sun collided in a grazing angle. The ejected material formed Saturn-like rings around Earth. Over thousands of years these rings accreted into a huge mass of orbiting particle eventually forming the Moon we have today.
-
- The Full Moonlight is 400,000 times dimmer than Sunlight. This is not intuitive because our eyes protect us from huge brightness changes. The 6th magnitude stars mark the lower limits of human visual experience. The upper limits is 9 trillion times brighter.
-
- We only see dimness in black and white. With more light intensity we can see colors. But, these colors only occur in our brains. The photons are only electromagnetic pulses. They have neither luminosity or color. Just as magnetism and electricity is not visible, neither are photons. Instead photos deliver an electromagnetic force that excite the cells in the back of the eye. The impulses for these cells produce the subjective perception of light and color. That is why the rainbow of colors occurs strictly inside your head.
-
- Your brain’s 100 billion neurons are what creates the brightness and colors in our visual Universe. It will be hard to convince you that the visual scene external to your eyes is only an illusion.
-
- The photons originated in the Sun. The brightness of the Sun is 400 trillion, trillion watts. What reaches us is only 1,000 watts per square meter. The photons do not come from the Sun’s disk that we see. Instead the inner most core , 1/200th of the volume , produces photons in the center compact fusion generator. The outer edge is the photosphere where these photons are released. This edge is only a few hundred miles thick.
-
- Eight minutes later the photons show up on Earth. But, none turn in to colored light until your brain does its trick. The energy of the photons depends on the frequency of the photon oscillations. Higher frequencies carry more energy. The frequency also controls the color the eyes detect and the brain registers. The frequencies increase from red light to blue light. The rainbows are only in you head.
-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Other reviews available on this subject:
-
- #1704 - There are two sides to get a Full Moon. The size of the Moon is 27% the size of the Earth. However, the Moon is only 1.2% the mass of the Earth. To get a rocket to leave the Moon it needs to accelerate to only 5,400 miles per hour.
-
- #1681 - Enceladus and Europa might support life? We have 173 moons orbiting our 8 planets. Over 150 asteroids also have orbiting satellites.
-
- #1678 - Moon history from the beginning. The Moon has almost no atmosphere. You can count cratering yourself on website “NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter” www.moonzoo.org The Moon is 250,000 miles away but these images are from only 400 miles away.
-
- #1450 - Full Moon on Doug’s birthday.
-
- #1291 - Two Moons over Miami. The early Universe was a chaotic place.
-
- #1243 - What is behind the Man in the Moon? As the Moon cooled it preserved some water in the form of hydroxyl. The Moon is spiraling away in its orbit 1.5 inches each year.
-
- #1651 - Moon may be the best habitats for life.
-
- #64 - written November 11, 2004. What you did not know about our Moon.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
- to: ------- jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Monday, August 15, 2016 -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment