Lunar geology

Lunar Geology

John Young from Apollo 16, April 1972


Harrison Schmidt 12/1972 Apollo 17


Relative Size and Distance

Object

Size

Moon

1.0 units

Earth

3.7 units

Separation

110.6 units

Sun

400.5 units

Relative Size of Earth and Moon


From which side is the
sun light coming?


Moon Data



Note the Picture Difference

Naked
eye view
of the
Moon

?


Can You Spot the
”Face of the Man in the Moon”?


Tycho Crater

Young crater
Circular Ray crater
85 kilometers across

Clearly visible from Earth
Close to the southern polar
Surrounded by a bright ejecta blanket.


Clavius
232 km = 144 miles
4.9 km deep
South of Tycho
Palomar 200 inch


Mare Imbrium
Largest of the 14 dark
plains of the near side
of the Moon
London to Rome


Rilles
Apollo 11 site near
the center of the top
edge


Apollo 11 Landing Site



Clementine Images at Different Wavelengths

Moments before impact with Alphonsus

3/24/65

Alphonsus is about 129 km wide



Low Lands and High Lands


Surveyor 3 Lands on the Moon
Landed in 4/67
Visited in 11/69
Apollo 12 Astronauts
Allen Bean Pictured
Pete Conrad Photographer


Apollo 15
Lunar Rover


Buzz Aldrin, Seismometer Detected Moonquakes

Regolith
Billions of years of
pounding by space
debris have pulverized
the Moon’s surface
which is now bone dry
yet sticks together like
wet sand.