Greatest Secrets of the Moon
Though these celestial bodies are very close to Earth, there are many secrets that it holds. The biggest secret of what the celestial bodies that orbit the Earth?
'Near' here certainly have a relative context. Gray-white dots in the sky Earth is 362 thousand miles from Earth. Mission to the moon certainly not easy, especially on a manned mission. No human to set foot on the moon before 1972.
Afterward, many countries around the world began to do research on this Earth satellite. Future missions by robots and humans will help solve some of the major puzzles of the Moon. Including.
The way the moon reached its present position
Scientists claim to have an idea what really happened. Many lines of evidence (a small core of months, certain elements are complementary and computer simulation of orbital rotation months for thousands of years) showed that the moon was born from a giant collision.
According to this theory, about 4.5 billion years ago, Mars-sized object hit the young Earth and a liquid. The material result of the collision was merged into the moon.
Blue Moon
Evidently, a lot of water outside and within the month. This led researchers to reach a conclusion. "More and examined, the more water is found in different places and depths," said Neil Comins professor of physics at the University of Maine.
The study shows, the interior of the moon is much more moist than it should. Recent re-examination of rock samples brought to Earth to have a watermark. "An open question regarding the origin and distribution of water on the moon," said Comins.
Locked by Earth
Months 'locked' the Earth. That is, there is only one hemisphere facing the earth. Sides are called maria, or 'sea,' cold magma. Surprisingly, maria hardly be found in the back side of the moon, as revealed by data from satellites (and viewed directly Apollo 8 astronauts).
Hemisphere winter is known to have a thick crust (15 km) than other parts. This makes the parts on the other hand is more easily cracked due to attacks that remove the meteorite-forming magma depth maria months, Comins said. However, this asymmetry crust itself is a puzzle.
Larger models in the interior of the moon and a better understanding of the damage caused by the collisions may help explain the 'two faces' of this strange.
The key to human existence?
At a quarter in diameter and more than 1% of the mass of Earth, the moon becomes the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system. Enough mass and gravity moon stabilizes the 'wobble' in the Earth's axis.
In addition, the moon causes the ocean tide on Earth that might help 'stirring the primordial soup,' continued Comins again. In short, astronomers have wondered whether the world needs a large moon like Earth so that life could develop.
Answer that question may be in neighboring planet, Mars. Red Planet has two small moon. "When humans to Mars and determine whether and how life evolved there. It will help to better understand how life is formed without the moon, "lid Comins.