MOON

Moon stabilizes Earth's Tilt and Climate (not in text)

Earth's spin axis tilted 23.5 degrees from perpendicular to orbital plane.
Earth's spin causes equatorial bulge.
Planets act with gravitation on bulge.
Result tilt varies, but our large Moon acts as anchor, limits change to 1.3 degrees that causes ice ages.
If no Moon, tilt 0 to 90 degrees
0 degrees = no seasons
90 degrees = poles direct sunlight to no sunlight every year
Wild climate changes hostile to life.
Mars has two puny satellites, no anchor, and atmosphere (climate) varies wildly - thin to thick.
Mercury and Venus stabilized by nearby Sun
giant planets stable because of their large mass.

Full Moons (not in text)

1. Male child more likely if conceived at full Moon.
2. A full Moon is considered unlucky on Sunday but lucky on Monday, Moon Day.
3. Only one month has ever elapsed without a full Moon, February 1866, an event that will not repeat itself for 2.5 million years.
4. Ancient Greeks thought that marriages consummated during the full Moon would be prosperous and happy.
5. In England, a disctinction was once made between lunacy and insanity; the former happened only during a full moon, while the latter was permanent.
6. Many Navajos believe that a woman is more likely to give birth during a full Moon because of its pull on amniotic fluid.
7. Doctors who note increased bleeding in patients may well attribute it to the Moon, a correlation confirmed by some studies.

Blue Moon = two full moons in September (time 29.5 days) Rare - one in a blue Moon
Chinese Moon Festival = mooncakes, Moon Goddess, 8th month's full Moon (lunar calendar)
Harvest Moon = Full Moon near Autumnal Equinox (when length of day equals length of night) Then full Moon rises at sunset stays close to horizon, provides light for harvest. Harvest Moon - bright yellow large.
Yellow - seen through thick air of haze and humidity - low on horizon.
Large - in contrast to objects on horizon - Moon illusion.

Lunar Light and Atmosphere(not in text)

Moon's light = one millionth strength of sunlight.
Moon reflects 10 percent of incidentsunlight like asphalt.
Moon is a barren rock devoid of air, water or life.

Lack of substantial atmosphere:
- stars vanish abruptly behind Moon.
- astronants wear spacesuits with oxygen.
- moon shadows and daytime sky are dark.
Moon's rarefied atmosphere

Apollo missions - helium, argon, neon.
From Earth - sodium and potassium.
Moon = 100 atoms per cubic centimeter.
Mercury = 10,000 per cubic centimeter.
Earth air = 20 billion billion molecules per cubic centimeter around you.
Moon's atmospheric pressure = one trillionth Earth's = 1/1,000,000,000,000.
Lunar atmosphere is continuously created and lost - not permanent.
Produced when energetic sunlight kicks, dislodges, sputters atoms from surface.

The Moon's Face(text)

Always see near side
Rotation period = orbital period = one month
Maria = dark, smooth lightly cratered (solidified lava)
Highlands = light, rough, heavily cratered (impact welded rock)
Craters = meteorite impact
= cosmic bombs
= depressed floor
= always circular shape (despite impact angle)
= hole volume = rim volume

The Moon Close Up (text)

Far side = no Maria
Apollo 11 = first man or Moon
July 20, 1969 (correct page 38)
Mascons = mass concentractions below Maria
No water on Moon and never has been

Lunar History:
Origin = 4.6 billion years ago
Intense Bombardment = 3.9 to 4.2 billion years ago
Lava Flows = 3.1 and 4.2 billion years ago
Almost everything we see on the Moon is 3 to 4 billion years old.

Weak, deep moon quakes
Magnetism = no global dipolar field
= localized fossil magnetism

Apollo's Legacy (not in text)

Landing sites = near central lunar
- radio contact
- return to Earth fast

Retrospective

Apollo II - Neil Armstrong July 20, 1969
"Houston, Tranquility Base here - the Eagle has landed"
"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind"
Apollo 17 - Gene Cerran - December 1972
"Lets get this mother out of here"
25th anniversary -
Books - Chaikin - A man on the Moon
- Shepherd - Moon shot at Slayton
- Wolfe - The Right Stuff
- Movie - Apollo 13

Earth seen from space for first time- fragile, isolated = ecology movement.
Apollo Mission - six landers, 8 years, $25 billion, national purpose, shared sacrifice, cold war American power and resolve.
Current interests - self gratification, end poverty, cure cancer, stop wars, spirtitual vacuum, withered capacity for wonder.

The New Moon (not in text)

Galileo - December 8, 1990 - far side
- December 8, 1992 - north pole gravity assist to Jupiter

Clementine - after miner's daughter
New NASA = smaller, faster, cheaper
500 pounds, 2 yrs, $80 million
- Defense Department Star wars
- Global Perspective - poles
74 days February 19 - May 3, 1994
- South Pole - Aiken Basin
Largest impact feature in solar system
2,500 km diameter, 13 km deep

More Clementine
- Global chemical composition identity rock - forming minerals by visible and infared color
- iron distribution strengthens impact origin theory

The New Frontier(not in text)

Astronomy from far side of Moon
1. No interference
- radio quiet no light pollution.

2. No atmosphere
- no limit to visible resolution.
3. Stable rock - solid platform - interferometers for even greater resolution.
4. Long wavelength radio waves.
5. Gamma rays.

Dream - return to Moon
- Humans to Mars

Tides(text)

Two tidal bulges produced in ocean by Moon's gravity.

As Earth rotates, continents wash against tidal bulges producing ebb and flow of tides every 12 hours.

Tidal Effects

- days get longer
0.002 seconds per century.
- moon moves away from Earth.
4 centimeters per year.
- Earth rotated faster when younger.
Earth's Solid-Body Bulge due to Rotation.s.

Tidal Bulge of Earth's Oceans due to Moons Gravity