NASA has published a .pdf document titled: “Exploring the Moon: a Teacher’s Guide with activities for Earth and Space Sciences”. It has lots of introductory content and several activities that can be done with students.
On Saturday the distance between the Moon and the Earth will be at a minimum at about 11:35 PM as the Moon makes its elliptical orbit around the earth. The moon will appear bigger and brighter than normal.
The Aitken Basin is the Moon’s largest impact structure. It is over 1000 miles across and a is located on the Moon’s far side. The impact might be related to lunar magnetic anomoalies.
“Unexpected new findings by a University of Maryland team of geochemists show that some portions of the Earth’s mantle (the rocky layer between Earth’s metallic core and crust) formed when the planet was much smaller than it is now.” Quoted from the University of Maryland press release.
“New images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft show the moon’s crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface. Scientists propose this geologic activity occurred less than 50 million years ago, which is considered recent compared to the moon’s age of more than 4.5 billion years.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
In the 1970′s a rock brought back from the Moon was broken into 370 pieces and shared with 135 different countries and each of the fifty states. Now nobody knows what happened to some of these rocks.
NASA’s GRAIL mission has beamed back its first video of the far side of the moon. The imagery was taken on Jan. 19 by the MoonKAM aboard the mission’s “Ebb” spacecraft.
An asteroid measuring somewhere between 20 and 60 feet in diameter came within 37,000 miles of hitting the Earth – that’s about 1/6 of the distance between Earth and Moon.
Sand dunes are a dominant surface feature on Saturn’s moon Titan. They cover about 13% of the moon’s surface – an area about the same size as the United States. Instead of quartz sand the sand is a solid hydrocarbon!
Researchers have discovered small amounts of tranquillityite, a mineral previously known only from lunar samples, at six locations in Western Australia.
“With the artistry of a magazine cover shoot, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this portrait of five of Saturn’s moons poised along the planet’s rings.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“This image of the moon’s north polar region was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. The scientific objective was to identify regions of permanent shadow and near-permanent illumination. Scientists produced this mosaic, composed of 983 images taken over a one month period during northern summer. This mosaic shows the pole when it is best illuminated, regions that are in shadow are candidates for permanent shadow.” Edited quote from the NASA image release.
“NASA’s twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08 a.m. EDT (6:08 a.m. PDT) Saturday, Sept. 10, to study the moon in unprecedented detail.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. Images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
A new study described in the online journal Nature used isotopic dating techniques to revise the age of a class of lunar rocks known as ferroan anorthosite. They suggest that the moon might have formed about 200 million years later than previously believed.
“Planetary-scale atmospheric waves affect the moon’s weather patterns, leading to a “stenciling” effect that results in sharp and sometimes surprising cloud shapes.” Quoted from the UCLA news release.
Although conditions in the United States are not optimal for observing the Perseid Meteor Shower this year because of a nearly full moon, you still have a great chance of seeing a few meteors on August 12 and 13.
The far side of the moon has a very mountainous topography and a very different crustal composition than the lunar near side. These differences may have been produced with a small companion moon was accreted in a low-velocity impact.
Analysis of new images of a curious “hot spot” on the far side of the Moon reveal it to be a small volcanic province created by the upwelling of silicic magma. The unusual location of the province and the surprising composition of the lava that formed it offer tantalizing clues to the Moon’s thermal history.
“The new moon is the smallest discovered around Pluto. It has an estimated diameter of 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km). By comparison, Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, is 648 miles (1,043 km) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 km).” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“The initial spacecraft exploration of the Moon in the 1960s–70s yielded extensive data, primarily in the form of film and television images, which were used to produce a large number of hardcopy maps by conventional techniques. A second era of exploration, beginning in the early 1990s, has produced digital data including global multispectral imagery and altimetry, from which a new generation of digital map products tied to a rapidly evolving global control network has been made.” Quote from the USGS publication citation.
“In anticipation of the upcoming lunar eclipse later this month [June, 15], NASA has released a new video that shows how lunar eclipses work.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“From impact craters to the dark plains of maria left behind by volcanic eruptions, the scars are all that remain to tell the tale of what happened to the moon.” Quoted from NASA.
“This Wide Angle Camera (WAC) mosaic provides the most complete look at the morphology of the farside to date, and will provide a valuable resource for the scientific community. And it’s simply a spectacular sight! The WAC topographic dataset will be completed and released later this year.” Quoted from the NASA article.
“On March 19 the full moon will brighten the night sky as the biggest full moon seen in almost two decades. The moon will be at perigee, its closest point to Earth — only 221,565 miles (356,575 km) away. [...] For the best viewing — and dependent upon clear skies, of course– look when the moon is near the horizon at sunset.” Quoted from the NASA website.
Earth Magazine has an article titled “A Memoir: A Decade-Plus of Tracking Lunar Larceny”. The article explores how some rock specimens brought back from the moon have entered the black market and are being sold for millions of dollars per specimen.
This article at KnoxNews describes one theory for the origin of lunar water and explains why the presence of water on the moon can be important to future lunar missions.
“NASA researchers have recently applied state-of-the-art seismological techniques applied to the Apollo-era data and discovered that the moon probably has a core that is very similar to Earth’s.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
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