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Buzz Aldrin, photographed here in the sea of tranquility.NASA
On July 20, 1969, the Eagle lunar module landed on the moon, in the sea of tranquility. Neil Armstrong became the first to carve human footprints on the surface of our lunar companion, closely followed by Buzz Aldrin. They spent almost a day there, hoping for breathtaking desolation, before joining Michael Collins in the group. Columbia module in orbit above. They even took with them a sample of their landing site.
The Sea of Tranquility is a rather melodious name for any geological feature, not to mention the site where humans first arrived in the plains of a world a bit strange. Watch the outcome of First manHowever, I wondered if anyone else at the cinema knew what Ryan Gosling had just claimed to have crossed. Have you ever wondered what lunar maria – the "seas" of the moon – are they really?
The Moon was forged about the same time as the Earth, 4.5 billion years ago. The main theory is that an object of the size of Mars rammed into the embryonic Earth at that time, throwing a large amount of material into space. Part of this material was taken over by Earth's gravitational pull and began circling around it as a ring before uniting to form the Moon.
Thanks to the two samples taken by the Apollo The astronauts and the occasional lunar meteorites that hit our planet, the scientists understand quite well the age of the parts of the Moon. Like the Earth, the age of its crust is not uniform over its entire surface.
The Earth is a much more complicated object than the Moon. Once covered with a single shell, it was broken when its inner layers moved and moved according to the chemical affinities of the elements that it managed to capture during its formation.
Plate tectonics, involving the creation, movement, and destruction of the surface of the world, means that some lands are billions of years old. The collapse of the plates under the others destroys them, thus erasing old geological timing records. Volcanic eruptions, of which dozens now occur, are continually creating the youngest country on Earth.
The Moon does not have plate tectonics, but that did not stop it from having volcanic eruptions and eruptions in the past. These eruptions mean that some parts of the surface are younger than others and you can see them at the naked eye: the moon maria, those dark spots surrounding the top, peppered at the crater terrae.
The fishermen of yesteryear saw these vast low plains and thought they looked at least like the seas of the Earth, which earned them their name. In reality, they are huge collections of frozen lava.
Like the Hawaiian archipelago, they are usually made from basalt, a very common volcanic product. They are not quite the same and, through the basins of the Moon, a wide range of volcanic rocks – each produced by different types of volcanism – has been discovered. Aside from the small imperfections, the basins nevertheless represent what appear to be gigantic lava spills.
The North Pole of the Moon shows a transition between the near side dominated by the maria and the far side covered with craters.JPL / NASA
Craters dominate the terrae, but the maria miss them. Craters on the moon can not be eroded because there is no significant atmosphere of surface water to allow it. This suggests that there were craters where the maria are now, but when these lava flows occurred, they covered the pre-existing craters. At the very least, it was clear that they were younger than the terrae.
It is known that between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, an incredibly large number of asteroids struck the Earth and the Moon, as well as other interior rocky worlds. Although the cause of late heavy bombardment (LHB) is unclear, careful dating of impact sites and fragments of asteroids and meteorites clearly demonstrates its existence.
the mariashould not be more than 3.8 billion years old. If they were present during the LHB, they would be covered with craters. The dating of radioactive inclusions in rocks extracted from the maria – including the sea of tranquility – confirmed: the samples are between 3.2 and 3.8 billion years old. The lands are between 3.8 and 4.5 billion years old. Both, in this case, are much older than the rock samples that we obtain on Earth, where plate tectonics guaranteed the basic annihilation of the earliest geologies.
Therefore the maria are young and made of floods of basalt. What could create lava flows the size of continents?
The melting conditions vary and, depending on the evolution of magma caches in the crust, different eruption styles and lava flavors appear on the surface. We can not physically see the cast happen, but scientists have a decent idea of what's going on there. Deep samples of the mantle ejected at certain eruptions, geochemical studies, and laboratory experiments that literally melt rocks under realistic conditions can reverse time to identify the geological ascendancy of the lavas.
The same thing applies to the moon. By taking samples of the lunar seas and comparing them with those of the Earth, there is a theory of how the maria has come about.
A long time ago, the surface consisted of a single deep ocean magma, which began to cool and form a crust. In some places basins have been created. These are visible from both sides of the Moon, from the engraved near face engraved on Earth to the hidden face that only a spaceship can see. These basins, including the Sea of Tranquility, arose when ancient asteroids crashed onto the Moon, creating giant depressions.
These impact craters were strong enough to pierce the thin crust. This causes a massive flow of the magmatic ocean still cooling, causing the flooding of a considerable amount of basaltic lava in the basins.
Oddly, the near face of the moon is dominated by these maria; the hidden face is covered with craters, but little lava flooding jelly. It is generally thought that the crust on the near side should be thinner. This could be easily broken, while the crust on the far side was thick enough to generally prevent colossal basalt spills.
Why do the two hemispheres have such different crust thicknesses, however, remains an open question. A study conducted in 2014, however, provided a convincing answer. Billions of years ago, the moon was 10 to 20 times closer than today and its orbit will continue to widen as time passes. This means that the near side of the Moon was right next to the Earth because they were both still balls of merging pre-volcanic fury, while the far side remained facing a deep space.
This allowed the remote party to cool down very slowly. The minerals were vaporized and their elements drifted out, where they could cool and condense. This allowed the crust on the far side to become rather thick and stiff, making the lava episodes triggered by a much less likely impact.
Constantly bombarded by the Earth's thermal radiation, it remained liquid for a period of time, preventing the formation of a decent crust. The asteroids have greeted it with violence and the seas are born. Billions of years later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed at Mare Tranquilitatisand jumped into what was once a turbulent, furious and fiery ocean.
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Buzz Aldrin, photographed here in the sea of tranquility.NASA
On July 20, 1969, the Eagle lunar module landed on the moon, in the sea of tranquility. Neil Armstrong became the first to carve human footprints on the surface of our lunar companion, closely followed by Buzz Aldrin. They spent almost a day there, hoping for breathtaking desolation, before joining Michael Collins in the group. Columbia module in orbit above. They even took with them a sample of their landing site.
The Sea of Tranquility is a rather melodious name for any geological feature, not to mention the site where humans first arrived in the plains of a world a bit strange. Watch the outcome of First manHowever, I wondered if anyone else at the cinema knew what Ryan Gosling had just claimed to have crossed. Have you ever wondered what lunar maria – the "seas" of the moon – are they really?
The Moon was forged about the same time as the Earth, 4.5 billion years ago. The main theory is that an object of the size of Mars rammed into the embryonic Earth at that time, throwing a large amount of material into space. Part of this material was taken over by Earth's gravitational pull and began circling around it as a ring before uniting to form the Moon.
Thanks to the two samples taken by the Apollo The astronauts and the occasional lunar meteorites that hit our planet, the scientists understand quite well the age of the parts of the Moon. Like the Earth, the age of its crust is not uniform over its entire surface.
The Earth is a much more complicated object than the Moon. Once covered with a single shell, it was broken when its inner layers moved and moved according to the chemical affinities of the elements that it managed to capture during its formation.
Plate tectonics, involving the creation, movement, and destruction of the surface of the world, means that some lands are billions of years old. The collapse of the plates under the others destroys them, thus erasing old geological timing records. Volcanic eruptions, of which dozens now occur, are continually creating the youngest country on Earth.
The Moon does not have plate tectonics, but that did not stop it from having volcanic eruptions and eruptions in the past. These eruptions mean that some parts of the surface are younger than others and you can see them at the naked eye: the moon maria, those dark spots surrounding the top, peppered at the crater terrae.
The fishermen of yesteryear saw these vast low plains and thought they looked at least like the seas of the Earth, which earned them their name. In reality, they are huge collections of frozen lava.
Like the Hawaiian archipelago, they are usually made from basalt, a very common volcanic product. They are not quite the same and, across the Moon's basins, a wide range of volcanic rocks – each produced by different types of volcanism – has been discovered. Aside from the small imperfections, the basins nevertheless represent what appear to be gigantic lava spills.
The North Pole of the Moon shows a transition between the near side dominated by the maria and the far side covered with craters.JPL / NASA
Craters dominate the terrae, but the maria miss them. Craters on the moon can not be eroded because there is no significant atmosphere of surface water to allow it. This suggests that there were craters where the maria are now, but when these lava flows occurred, they covered the pre-existing craters. At the very least, it was clear that they were younger than the terrae.
It is known that between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, an incredibly large number of asteroids struck the Earth and the Moon, as well as other interior rocky worlds. Although the cause of late heavy bombardment (LHB) is unclear, careful dating of impact sites and fragments of asteroids and meteorites clearly demonstrates its existence.
the mariashould not be more than 3.8 billion years old. If they were present during the LHB, they would be covered with craters. The dating of radioactive inclusions in rocks extracted from the maria – including the sea of tranquility – confirmed: the samples are between 3.2 and 3.8 billion years old. The lands are between 3.8 and 4.5 billion years old. Both, in this case, are much older than the rock samples that we obtain on Earth, where plate tectonics guaranteed the basic annihilation of the earliest geologies.
Therefore the maria are young and made of floods of basalt. What could create lava flows the size of continents?
The melting conditions vary and, depending on the evolution of magma caches in the crust, different eruption styles and lava flavors appear on the surface. We can not physically see the cast happen, but scientists have a decent idea of what's going on there. Deep samples of the mantle ejected at certain eruptions, geochemical studies, and laboratory experiments that literally melt rocks under realistic conditions can reverse time to identify the geological ascendancy of the lavas.
The same thing applies to the moon. By taking samples of the lunar seas and comparing them with those of the Earth, there is a theory of how the maria has come about.
A long time ago, the surface consisted of a single deep ocean magma, which began to cool and form a crust. In some places basins have been created. These are visible from both sides of the Moon, from the engraved near face engraved on Earth to the hidden face that only a spaceship can see. These basins, including the Sea of Tranquility, arose when ancient asteroids crashed onto the Moon, creating giant depressions.
These impact craters were strong enough to pierce the thin crust. This causes a massive flow of the magmatic ocean still cooling, causing the flooding of a considerable amount of basaltic lava in the basins.
Oddly, the near face of the moon is dominated by these maria; the hidden face is covered with craters, but little lava flooding jelly. It is generally thought that the crust on the near side should be thinner. This could be easily broken, while the crust on the far side was thick enough to generally prevent colossal basalt spills.
Why do the two hemispheres have such different crust thicknesses, however, remains an open question. A study conducted in 2014, however, provided a convincing answer. Billions of years ago, the moon was 10 to 20 times closer than today and its orbit will continue to widen as time passes. This means that the near side of the Moon was right next to the Earth because they were both still balls of merging pre-volcanic fury, while the far side remained facing a deep space.
This allowed the remote party to cool down very slowly. The minerals were vaporized and their elements drifted out, where they could cool and condense. This allowed the crust on the far side to become rather thick and stiff, making the lava episodes triggered by a much less likely impact.
Constantly bombarded by the Earth's thermal radiation, it remained liquid for a period of time, preventing the formation of a decent crust. The asteroids have greeted it with violence and the seas are born. Billions of years later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed at Mare Tranquilitatisand jumped into what was once a turbulent, furious and fiery ocean.
