What are the most characteristic landforms of the moon? Moon relief

The relief of the lunar surface was mainly clarified as a result of many years of telescopic observations. The “lunar seas,” occupying about 40% of the visible surface of the Moon, are flat lowlands intersected by cracks and low winding ridges; There are relatively few large craters in the seas. Many seas are surrounded by concentric ring ridges. The remaining, lighter surface is covered with numerous craters, ring-shaped ridges, grooves, and so on. Craters smaller than 15-20 kilometers have a simple cup shape; larger craters (up to 200 kilometers) consist of a rounded shaft with steep internal slopes, have a relatively flat bottom, deeper than the surrounding terrain, often with a central hill. The heights of mountains above the surrounding area are determined by the length of shadows on the lunar surface or photometrically. In this way, hypsometric maps were compiled on a scale of 1: 1,000,000 for most of the visible side. However, absolute heights, distances of points on the surface of the Moon from the center of the figure or mass of the Moon are determined very uncertainly, and hypsometric maps based on them give only general idea about the relief of the Moon. The relief of the lunar marginal zone, which, depending on the libration phase, limits the lunar disk, has been studied in much more detail and more accurately. For this zone, the German scientist F. Hein, the Soviet scientist A. A. Nefediev, and the American scientist C. Watts compiled hypsometric maps, which are used to take into account the unevenness of the edge of the Moon during observations in order to determine the coordinates of the Moon (such observations are made with meridian circles and from photographs of the Moon against the background of surrounding stars, as well as from observations of star occultations). Micrometric measurements determined the selenographic coordinates of several main reference points in relation to the lunar equator and the middle meridian of the Moon, which serve for reference large number other points on the lunar surface. The main starting point is the small, regular-shaped crater Mösting, clearly visible near the center of the lunar disk. The structure of the lunar surface has been mainly studied by photometric and polarimetric observations, supplemented by radio astronomy studies. moon soil phase tide

Craters on the lunar surface have different relative ages: from ancient, barely visible, highly reworked formations to very clear-cut young craters, sometimes surrounded by light “rays”. At the same time, young craters overlap older ones. In some cases, the craters are cut into the surface of the lunar maria, and in others, the rocks of the seas cover the craters. Tectonic ruptures either dissect craters and seas, or are themselves overlapped by younger formations. These and other relationships make it possible to establish the sequence of appearance of various structures on the lunar surface; in 1949, Soviet scientist A.V. Khabakov divided lunar formations into several successive age complexes. Further development of this approach made it possible by the end of the 60s to compile medium-scale geological maps for a significant part of the lunar surface. The absolute age of lunar formations is known so far only at a few points; but, using some indirect methods, it can be established that the age of the youngest large craters is tens and hundreds of millions of years, and the bulk of large craters arose in the “pre-marine” period, 3-4 billion years ago.

Both internal forces and external influences took part in the formation of lunar relief forms. Calculations of the thermal history of the Moon show that soon after its formation, the interior was heated by radioactive heat and was largely melted, which led to intense volcanism on the surface. As a result, giant lava fields and a number of volcanic craters were formed, as well as numerous cracks, ledges and more. At the same time, a huge number of meteorites and asteroids fell on the surface of the Moon in the early stages - the remnants of a protoplanetary cloud, the explosions of which created craters - from microscopic holes to ring structures with a diameter of many tens, and possibly up to several hundred kilometers. Due to the absence of an atmosphere and hydrosphere, a significant part of these craters has survived to this day. Nowadays, meteorites fall on the Moon much less frequently; volcanism also largely ceased as the Moon used up a lot of thermal energy and radioactive elements were carried into the outer layers of the Moon. Residual volcanism is evidenced by the outflow of carbon-containing gases in lunar craters, spectrograms of which were first obtained by the Soviet astronomer N.A. Kozyrev.

On Moon no atmosphere. So her relief not protected from meteorites, on its surfaces there is no erosion of rocks, and there is no dust on the surface of the Moon. The fact is that in an airless space any dust quickly sticks together into a porous mass similar to pumice.
The lunar landscape is strict and solemn. The surface is dotted with craters, both large mountain circuses and small ones the size of a pinhead. They are of both meteorite and volcanic origin. The edges of the rocks are sharp. The shadows cast by the rocks are clear and black.

The lunar soil is dark, almost black. Physicists have such a concept as “albedo”; this value shows how much incident light a particular surface reflects as a percentage. The Moon's albedo is about 7 percent. This is how black reflects. If there were light soil on the Moon, then on Earth on a moonlit night it would be as light as day.

The horizon line on the Moon is one kilometer from the observer. The black starry sky glows slightly. It is the dust from meteorite fragments that scatters the light. In the sky the moon is blue ball-Earth, which is 40 times larger in apparent size than the Moon in our sky, and illuminates its surface well.

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Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Donetsk secondary school I-III stages No. 44

in astronomy

on the topic: " Moon"

11th grade students

DOSH I-III Art. No. 44

Zhdanko Elizaveta

teacher: Maslennikova I.L.

Donetsk 2011

Introduction

MOON - natural satellite Earth, its permanent closest neighbor. It is the second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite of the planets. solar system. The Moon is also the first and only celestial body, besides the Earth, visited by man. The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,467 km. Even before the era space research astronomers knew that the Moon was an unusual body. Although it is not the largest satellite in the solar system, it is one of the largest in relation to its planet, Earth. The density of the Moon is only 3.3 times that of water, which is less than that of any of the terrestrial planets: the Earth itself, Mercury, Venus and Mars. This circumstance alone makes us think about unusual conditions for the formation of the Moon. Soil samples from the surface of the Moon made it possible to determine it chemical composition and age (4.1 billion years for the oldest samples), but this only further confused our understanding of the origin of the Moon.

1 . Moon in mythology

The moon in Roman mythology is the goddess of night light. The moon had several sanctuaries, one together with the sun god. In Egyptian mythology, the moon goddess Tefnut and her sister Shu, one of the incarnations of the solar principle, were twins. In Indo-European and Baltic mythology, the motif of the month courting the sun and their wedding is widespread: after the wedding, the month leaves the sun, for which the thunder god takes revenge on him and cuts the month in half. In another mythology, the month, who lived in the sky with his wife the sun, came to earth to see how people lived. On earth, Khosedem (evil female) chased the month mythological creature). The moon, hastily returning to the sun, only half managed to enter its chum. The sun grabbed him by one half, and Khosedem by the other and began to pull him into different sides until they were torn in half. The sun then tried to revive the month, which was left without the left half and thus without a heart, tried to make a heart for it from coal, rocked it in a cradle (a shamanic way of resurrecting a person), but everything was in vain. Then the sun commanded the month that it should shine at night with its remaining half. In Armenian mythology, Lusin (“moon”), a young man asked his mother, who was holding the dough, for a bun. The angry mother slapped Lusin in the face, from which he flew into the sky. Traces of the test are still visible on his face. By folk beliefs, the phases of the moon are associated with the cycles of life of King Lusin: the new moon - with his youth, the full moon - with maturity; when the moon wanes and a crescent appears, Lusin becomes old, and then goes to heaven (dies). He returns from paradise reborn.

There are also myths about the origin of the moon from parts of the body (most often from the left and right eyes). Most peoples of the world have special lunar myths that explain the appearance of spots on the moon, most often by what is located there special person(“moon man” or “moon woman”). Many peoples attribute the moon deity special meaning, believing that it provides the necessary elements for all living things.

In many traditions (in particular, Greek), the Moon patronizes magic, witchcraft, and fortune telling.

2 . OriginLuny

There are several theories to explain the formation of the Moon. One of the first theories that explains the process of formation of the Moon was J. Darwin's theory that the Moon was formed as a result of the action of centrifugal forces during the formation of the Earth. As a result of these forces, some earth's crust was thrown back to open space. From this part the Moon was formed. Due to the fact that, as scientists believe, throughout the history of the Earth, our planet has never had a sufficient rotation speed to confirm this theory, this point of view on the process of formation of the Moon is considered to be at the moment outdated. Another theory, developed by the German scientist K. Weizsäcker, the Swedish scientist H. Alfven and the American scientist G. Urey, suggests that the Moon formed separately from the Earth, and was subsequently simply captured by the Earth's gravitational field. The probability of such an event is very low, and, in addition, in this case one would expect a greater difference between the earth and lunar rocks.

The third theory, formulated by Soviet scientists - O.Yu. Schmidt and his followers, explains that both the Earth and the Moon were formed from a single protoplanetary cloud and the process of their formation took place simultaneously. The probability of such an event is very low, and, in addition, in this case one would expect a greater difference between the earth and lunar rocks.

Although the above three theories of the formation of the Moon explain its origin, they all contain certain contradictions. The dominant theory of the formation of the Moon today is the theory of a giant collision of the proto-Earth with a celestial body the size of the planet Mars. In this case, the lighter substances of the outer layers of the Earth would have to break away from it and scatter in space, forming a ring of debris around the Earth, while the Earth's core, consisting of iron, would remain intact. Eventually, this ring of debris fused together to form the Moon. The giant impact theory explains why the Earth contains large amounts of iron, but the Moon has almost none. In addition, from the material that was supposed to turn into the Moon, as a result of this collision, many different gases were released - in particular oxygen.

Rice. 1. - Collision of the Earth with an object the size of Mars and

moon formation

3 . Internal structure Luny

The density of the Moon does not change much with depth, i.e. unlike the Earth, there is no large concentration of masses in the center.

The moon consists of a crust that is composed of igneous crystalline rocks- basalts, upper mantle, middle mantle, lower mantle (asthenosphere) and core. This structure is believed to have formed immediately after the formation of the Moon - 4.5 billion years ago. The thickness of the lunar crust is believed to be 50 km. The thickness of the upper mantle is about 250 km, and the middle is about 500 km, and its boundary with the lower mantle is located at a depth of about 1000 km. Moonquakes occur within the thickness of the lunar mantle, but unlike earthquakes, which are caused by the movement of tectonic plates, moonquakes are caused by the Earth's tidal forces. In the depths there is a hot core, partly molten. However, unlike the Earth's core, it contains almost no iron, so the Moon has no magnetic field.

4 . Surface of the Moon

The atmosphere of our satellite is very thin. One of the sources of the lunar atmosphere are gases that are released from the lunar crust, such gases include radon gas. Another source of gases in the lunar atmosphere are gases released when the lunar surface is bombarded by micrometeorites and the solar wind. Due to the weak magnetic and gravitational field On the moon, almost all gases from the atmosphere escape into outer space. Not being protected by the atmosphere, the surface of the Moon heats up to + 110 ° C during the day, and cools down to -120 ° C at night, however, as radio observations have shown, these huge temperature fluctuations penetrate only a few decimeters deep due to the extremely weak thermal conductivity of the surface layers. For the same reason, during total lunar eclipses, the heated surface quickly cools, although some places retain heat longer, probably due to high heat capacity (so-called “hot spots”). The sky above the Moon is always black, even during the day, because for scattering sunlight and the formation of a blue sky, as on Earth, requires air, which is absent there. Sound waves do not travel in a vacuum, so there is complete silence on the Moon.

The entire lunar ball is covered with a loose layer of crushed rocks. This layer is called regolith. Regolith was formed as a result of meteorite bombardment of the lunar surface. Impact-explosive processes accompanying meteorite bombardment contribute to loosening and mixing of soil, while simultaneously sintering and compacting soil particles. The thickness of the regolith layer varies from 3 meters in areas of the lunar “oceans” to 20 m on the lunar plateaus. The lunar surface is also influenced by solar and galactic corpuscular radiation, as well as solar electromagnetic radiation. According to modern concepts, the Moon has been in tectonic rest for over 2-3 billion years and, apparently, there are no active internal factors that could significantly influence the conditions for the formation and existence of regolith. Therefore, uniform action on the surface external factors caused a similar structure and structure of regolith throughout the lunar globe and generally averaged the physical and mechanical characteristics of the lunar soil. This has been confirmed by direct experiments carried out on the surface of the Moon. In terms of its granulometric and morphological characteristics, lunar regolith has no analogues among natural terrestrial formations, which, as a rule, are significantly more homogeneous. Regolith consists of 50-70% of fine dusty substance, and its larger particles are represented by fragments of local igneous rocks (basalts, gabbros, dolerites, anorthosites, norites, troctolites) and particles formed during meteorite impact reworking of the lunar surface (breccias, slags, agglutinates, glasses). Lunar rocks are depleted in iron, water and volatile components, and due to the influence of the solar wind, the regolith is saturated with neutral gases. Based on radioisotopes, it was established that some fragments on the surface of the regolith had been in the same place for tens and hundreds of millions of years.

5 . Relieflunnoh surface

The surface of the Moon can be divided into types: old mountainous terrain with a large number volcanoes and relatively smooth and young lunar seas. Main feature reverse side The moon is its continental character.

The dark areas of the surface that we can see from Earth on the surface of the Moon are what we call “oceans” and “seas.” Such names come from antiquity, when ancient astronomers thought that the Moon had seas and oceans, just like the Earth. In fact, these dark areas of the Moon's surface were formed by volcanic eruptions and are filled with basalt, which is darker than the surrounding rocks. The main lunar seas are concentrated within the visible hemisphere, the largest of them being the Ocean of Storms. It is adjacent to the Sea of ​​Rains from the northeast, the Sea of ​​Humidity and the Sea of ​​Clouds from the south. In the eastern half of the disk visible from the Earth, the Sea of ​​Clarity, the Sea of ​​Tranquility and the Sea of ​​Abundance stretch in a chain from northwest to southeast. This chain is adjoined from the south by the Sea of ​​Nectar, and from the northeast by the Sea of ​​Crises. Relatively small seas are located on the border of the visible and reverse hemispheres - the Eastern Sea, the Mare Sea, the Smith Sea and the Southern Sea. There is only one significant formation on the far side of the Moon marine type- Sea of ​​Moscow. On the surface of the lunar maria, under certain lighting conditions, sinuous elevations called swells are visible. The height of these mostly flat hills does not exceed 100-300 meters, but their length can reach hundreds of kilometers. A probable theory for their formation is that they arose during the solidification of lava seas due to compression. There are several on the lunar surface small formations marine type, relatively isolated from large formations, are called “lakes”. Formations bordering the seas and protruding into continental areas are called “bays”. The seas differ from continental areas in the low reflectivity of their surface matter, flatter relief forms and a smaller number of large craters per unit area - on average, calculated per unit area, the number of craters on the continental surface is 30 times higher than the number of craters in the seas. The relief elements also include the lunar mountains. They are represented by mountain ranges bordering the shores of most seas, as well as numerous ring-shaped mountains called craters. Individual peaks and small mountain ranges located on the surface of some lunar maria are probably, in most cases, dilapidated sides of craters. It is noteworthy that on the Moon, unlike the Earth, there are almost no linear mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, Andes and Cordillera on Earth.

Craterity is the most characteristic feature lunar relief. There are about half a million craters larger than 1 km in size. Due to the lack of atmosphere, water and significant geological processes the lunar craters were virtually unchanged and even ancient craters were preserved on its surface. The largest lunar craters are located on the far side of the Moon, for example the Korolev, Mendeleev, Gershprung craters and many others. In comparison, the Copernicus crater with a diameter of 90 km, located on the visible side of the Moon, seems very small. Also on the border of the visible side of the Moon there are giant craters, such as Struve with a diameter of 255 km and Darwin with a diameter of 200 km.

Nowadays, more than 35,000 large and about 200,000 small details have been recorded on maps of the Moon.

Both internal forces and external influences took part in the formation of lunar relief forms. Calculations of the thermal history of the Moon show that soon after its formation, the interior was heated by radioactive heat and was largely melted, which led to intense volcanism on the surface. As a result, giant lava fields and a number of volcanic craters were formed, as well as numerous cracks, ledges and more. At the same time, a huge number of meteorites and asteroids fell on the surface of the Moon in the early stages - the remnants of a protoplanetary cloud, the explosions of which created craters - from microscopic holes to ring structures with a diameter of many tens, and possibly up to several hundred kilometers. Nowadays, meteorites fall on the Moon much less frequently; volcanism also largely ceased as the Moon used up a lot of thermal energy and radioactive elements were carried into the outer layers of the Moon. Residual volcanism is evidenced by the outflow of carbon-containing gases in lunar craters, spectrograms of which were first obtained by the Soviet astronomer N.A. Kozyrev.

6 . Age of the Moon

Studying radioactive substances contained in lunar rocks, scientists were able to calculate the age of the Moon. For example, uranium slowly turns into lead. In a piece of uranium-238, half of the atoms turn into lead atoms in 4.5 billion years. Thus, by measuring the proportion of uranium and lead contained in a rock, it is possible to calculate its age: the more lead, the older it is. The rocks on the Moon became solid about 4.4 billion years ago. The moon had apparently formed shortly before this; its most probable age is about 4.65 billion years. This is consistent with the age of the meteorites, as well as with estimates of the age of the Sun.

7 . Moon phases

moon crust relief surface phase

The phases of the moon arise due to changes relative position Earth, Moon and Sun.

The visible edge of the Moon's disk is called the limb. The line dividing the parts of the Moon's disk illuminated and not illuminated by the Sun is called the terminator. The ratio of the area of ​​the illuminated part of the visible disk of the Moon to its entire area is called the Moon phase. There are four main phases of the moon: new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter. When the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth, its Earth-facing side is dark and therefore almost invisible. This moment is called the new moon, because, starting from it, the Moon seems to be born and becomes visible more and more. A quarter of the way through its orbit, the Moon shows half of its disk illuminated; at the same time they say that it is in the first quarter. When the Moon passes halfway through its orbit, the entire side facing the Earth becomes visible - it enters the full moon phase. The Earth also goes through different phases when viewed from the Moon. The time interval between two successive identical phases of the Moon is called a synodic month; its duration is 29.53 days. The sidereal month, i.e. The time it takes the Moon to make one revolution around the Earth relative to the stars is 27.3 days.

8 . Movement of the Moon

The apparent movement of the Moon against the background of stars is a consequence of the actual movement of the Moon around the Earth. During the sidereal month, the moon always moves among the stars in the same direction - from west to east, or in a straight motion. The visible path of the Moon in the sky is a non-closing curve, constantly changing its position among the stars of the zodiac constellations. The apparent movement of the Moon is accompanied by a continuous change in its appearance, characterized by the phase of the Moon.

The main influence on the movement of the Moon is exerted by the Earth, although the much more distant Sun also influences it. Therefore, explaining the movement of the Moon becomes one of the most difficult problems of celestial mechanics. The first acceptable theory was proposed by Isaac Newton in his Principia (1687), where the law was published universal gravity and laws of motion. Newton not only took into account all the disturbances in the lunar orbit known at that time, but also predicted some of the effects. In the 20th century, they use the theory of the American mathematician J. Hill, on the basis of which the American astronomer E. Brown calculated (1919) mathematical series and compiled tables containing the latitude, longitude and parallax of the Moon. The actual motion of the Moon is quite complex, and many factors must be taken into account when calculating it, such as the oblateness of the Earth and the strong influence of the Sun, which pulls the Moon 2.2 times stronger than the Earth.

The Moon moves around the Earth with average speed 1.02 km/sec in a roughly elliptical orbit in the same direction in which the vast majority of other bodies in the solar system move, that is, counterclockwise when looking at the Moon's orbit from the side North Pole peace. The semimajor axis of the Moon's orbit, equal to the average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon, is 384,400 km (approximately 60 Earth radii). Due to the ellipticity of the orbit and disturbances, the distance to the Moon varies between 356,400 and 406,800 km.

The period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth, the so-called sidereal month, is 27.3 days, but is subject to slight fluctuations and a very small secular reduction. The Moon rotates around an axis inclined to the ecliptic plane at an angle of 88°28", with a period exactly equal to sidereal month, as a result of which it is always turned to the Earth with the same side.

9 . Lunar eclipses

During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon completely moves into the Earth's shadow. The total phase of a lunar eclipse lasts much longer than the total phase solar eclipse. The shape of the edge of the earth's shadow during lunar eclipses served the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle as one of the strongest proofs of the sphericity of the Earth. Philosophers of ancient Greece calculated that the Earth was about three times larger than the Moon, simply based on the duration of eclipses (the exact value of this coefficient is 3.66). The Moon at the moment of a total lunar eclipse is actually deprived of sunlight, so a total lunar eclipse visible from anywhere in the Earth's hemisphere. The eclipse begins and ends simultaneously for all geographical points. However local time this phenomenon will be different. Since the Moon moves from west to east, the left edge of the Moon enters the earth's shadow first. An eclipse can be total or partial, depending on whether the Moon enters the Earth's shadow completely or passes near its edge. The closer to the lunar node a lunar eclipse occurs, the greater its phase. Finally, when the disk of the Moon is covered not by a shadow, but by a penumbra, penumbral eclipses occur. It is difficult to notice them with the naked eye. During an eclipse, the Moon hides in the shadow of the Earth and, it would seem, should disappear from view every time, because The earth is opaque. However earth's atmosphere dissipates sun rays, which fall on the eclipsing surface of the Moon “bypassing” the Earth. The reddish color of the disk is due to the fact that red and orange rays pass through the atmosphere best. Each lunar eclipse is different in the distribution of brightness and color in the Earth's shadow. The color of the eclipsed Moon is often assessed using a special scale proposed by the French astronomer André Danjon:

0 points - the eclipse is very dark, in the middle of the eclipse the Moon is almost or not visible at all.

1 point - the eclipse is dark, gray, details of the lunar surface are completely invisible.

2 points - the eclipse is dark red or reddish, a darker part is observed near the center of the shadow.

3 points - a brick-red eclipse, the shadow is surrounded by a grayish or yellowish border.

4 points - a copper-red eclipse, very bright, the outer zone is light, bluish.

If the plane of the Moon's orbit coincided with the plane of the ecliptic, then lunar eclipses would be repeated every month. But the angle between these planes is 5° and the Moon only crosses the ecliptic twice a month at two points called the nodes of the lunar orbit. Ancient astronomers knew about these nodes, calling them the Head and Tail of the Dragon (Rahu and Ketu). In order for a lunar eclipse to occur, the Moon must be near the node of its orbit during a full moon. There are usually 1-2 lunar eclipses per year. Some years there may be none at all, and sometimes a third thing happens. In the rarest cases, a fourth eclipse occurs, but only a partial penumbral one.

1 0 . History of lunar exploration

Exploration of the Moon using spacecraft began on September 14, 1959, with the collision of the Luna-2 automatic station with the surface of our satellite. Until this point, the only method of exploring the Moon was by observing the Moon. Galileo's invention of the telescope in 1609 was a major milestone in astronomy, particularly in the observation of the Moon. Galileo himself used his telescope to study the mountains and craters on the lunar surface.

Since the start of the space race between the USSR and the US during the Cold War, the Moon has been at the center of both the USSR and US space programs. From the US perspective, the 1969 moon landing was the culmination of the lunar race. On the other hand, many significant scientific milestones were achieved by the Soviet Union before the United States. For example, the first photographs of the far side of the Moon were taken by a Soviet satellite in 1959.

The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the Soviet station Luna 2. The far side of the Moon was photographed by the Luna 3 station on October 7, 1959. After these and other achievements of the USSR in space exploration, US President John Kennedy formulated the main US task in space as landing on the Moon.

Despite all the efforts of the United States, the Soviet Union is still for a long time remained a leader in lunar exploration. The Luna 9 station was the first to make a soft landing on the surface of our natural satellite. After landing, Luna 9 transmitted the first photographs of the lunar surface. The landing of Luna 9 proved the possibility of a safe landing on the Moon. This was especially important because until that moment it was believed that the surface of the Moon consisted of a layer of dust, which could be several meters thick and any object would simply “drown” in this layer of dust. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was also the Soviet station Luna-10, launched on March 31, 1966.

The American program for manned exploration of the Moon was called Apollo. It brought its first practical result on December 24, 1968, with a flyby spaceship Apollo 8 Moon. Humanity first set foot on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first person to leave his mark on the Moon was Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11. The first automatic robot on the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Lunokhod-1, which landed on the Moon on November 17, 1970. Last Man visited the moon in 1972.

Samples of lunar rock were brought to Earth as part of Soviet program"Luna" by automatic stations Luna-16, 20 and 24. Also, samples of lunar rock were delivered to Earth by astronauts of the Apollo mission.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, 65 man-made objects reached the lunar surface. But after the Luna-26 station, lunar exploration virtually ceased. The Soviet Union switched its exploration to Venus and the United States to Mars.

XXI century: October 9, 2009 LCROSS spacecraft and accelerating block Centaurus made a planned fall onto the lunar surface into the Cabeus crater, located approximately 100 km from south pole The moon, and therefore constantly in deep shadow. On November 13, NASA announced that water had been discovered on the Moon using this experiment.

It is possible that the Moon may contain not only silver, mercury and alcohols, but also other chemical elements and connections. Water ice, molecular hydrogen found by the LCROSS and LRO missions in the lunar crater Cabeus indicate that the Moon does have resources that could be exploited by future missions.

Conclusion

The Moon could become an excellent platform for carrying out the most complex observations in all branches of astronomy. Therefore, astronomers are likely to be the first scientists to return to the Moon. The Moon could become a base station for space exploration beyond its orbit. Thanks to small force lunar gravity, launching a huge space station from the Moon would be 20 times cheaper and easier than the Earth. Water and breathable gases could be produced on the Moon because lunar rocks contain hydrogen and oxygen. Rich reserves of aluminum, iron and silicon would provide a source of building materials.

A lunar base would be very important for further searches valuable raw materials available on the Moon to solve various engineering problems and for space research conducted under lunar conditions.

In many ways, the Moon would be an ideal location for an observatory. Observations beyond the atmosphere are now made using telescopes orbiting the Earth, such as the Hubble Space Telescope; but telescopes on the Moon would be far superior in every respect. Instruments on the far side of the Moon are protected from light reflected by the Earth, and the Moon's slow rotation on its axis means that lunar nights last for 14 of our days. This would allow astronomers to conduct continuous observations of any star or galaxy for much longer than is currently possible.

Pollution natural environment on Earth makes it increasingly difficult to observe the sky. Light from big cities, smoke and volcanic eruptions pollute the skies, and television stations interfere with radio astronomy. In addition, it is impossible to observe infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray radiation from the Earth. The next important step in studying the Universe could be the creation of a scientific settlement on the Moon.

List of used literature

1.Galkin I.N., Shvarev V.V. “Structure of the Moon” - M., “Znanie”, 1977.

2. Siegel F.Yu. "Lunar Horizons" - M., "Enlightenment", 1976.

3. Open astronomy - M., Physikon, 1999-2005.

4. http://full-moon.ru/

5. http://www.geokhi.ru/

6. http://www.krugosvet.ru/

7. http://ru.wikipedia.org/

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The Moon, as the only satellite of the Earth, is a very important object of comparative planetary research, structural analysis. Consideration of the main features of the formation of lunar relief forms. Introduction to television images of the lunar surface.

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Compiling three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface using the NASA World Wind program. Stages of searching for water on the Earth’s natural space satellite, information processing algorithms. Database of information reference system for the nomenclature of lunar formations.

Already from the time of Galileo, maps of the visible hemisphere of the Moon began to be compiled. Dark spots on the surface of the Moon were called “seas” (Fig. 47). These are lowlands where there is not a drop of water. Their bottom is dark and relatively flat. Most of the surface of the Moon is occupied by mountainous, lighter spaces. There are several mountain ranges called, like those on Earth, the Alps, the Caucasus, etc. The height of the mountains reaches 9 km. But the main form of relief are craters. Their ring ridges up to several kilometers high surround large round depressions up to 200 km in diameter, for example Clavius ​​and Schickard. All large craters are named after scientists. So, on the Moon there are craters Tycho, Copernicus, etc.

Rice. 47. Schematic map largest parts on the hemisphere of the Moon facing Earth.

On the full moon southern hemisphere The Tycho crater with a diameter of 60 km in the form of a bright ring and radially light rays diverging from it are clearly visible through strong binoculars. Their length is comparable to the radius of the Moon, and they stretch across many other craters and dark depressions. It turned out that the rays were formed by a cluster of many small craters with light walls.

Rice. 48. Schematic map of the far side of the Moon, invisible from Earth.

It is better to study the lunar relief when the corresponding terrain lies near the terminator, i.e., the boundaries of day and night on the Moon. Then the slightest irregularities illuminated by the Sun from the side cast long shadows and are easily noticeable. It is very interesting to watch through a telescope for an hour how light points light up near the terminator on the night side - these are the tops of the shafts of lunar craters. Gradually, a light horseshoe emerges from the darkness - part of the crater rim, but the bottom of the crater is still immersed in complete darkness. The rays of the Sun, sliding lower and lower, gradually outline the entire crater. At the same time, it is clearly visible that the smaller the craters, the more there are. They are often arranged in chains and even “sit” on top of each other. Later craters formed on the shafts of older ones. A hill is often visible in the center of the crater (Fig. 49), in fact it is a group of mountains. The crater walls end in terraces steeply inward.

Rice. 49. Circus Alphonse, in which the release of volcanic gases was observed (the picture was taken by an automatic station near the Moon).

The floor of the craters lies below the surrounding terrain. Take a close look at the inside of the shaft and the central hill of the Copernicus crater, photographed from the side by the artificial satellite of the Moon (Fig. 50). From the Earth this crater is visible directly from above and without such details. In general, from the Earth in best conditions Craters up to 1 km in diameter are barely visible. The entire surface of the Moon is pitted with small craters - gentle depressions - this is the result of impacts of small meteorites.

Rice. 50. “Central Hill” is rather a mountain range in the center of the Copernicus crater and the terraces of its shaft, breaking inwards (the crater was taken from an artificial satellite of the Moon. From Earth it looks similar to the Alphonse circus).

Only one hemisphere of the Moon is visible from Earth. In 1959, the Soviet space station, flying past the Moon, photographed the lunar hemisphere, invisible from Earth, for the first time. It is not fundamentally different from the visible one, but there are fewer “sea” depressions on it (Fig. 48). Now detailed maps of this hemisphere have been compiled on the basis of numerous photographs of the Moon taken at close range by automatic stations sent to the Moon. Artificially created vehicles have repeatedly descended on its surface. In 1969, a spacecraft carrying two American astronauts landed on the surface of the Moon for the first time. To date, several expeditions of US astronauts have visited the Moon and returned safely to Earth. They walked and even drove a special all-terrain vehicle on the surface of the Moon, installed and left various devices on it, in particular seismographs for recording “moonquakes,” and brought samples of lunar soil. The samples turned out to be very similar to terrestrial rocks, but they also revealed a number of features characteristic only of lunar minerals. Soviet scientists obtained samples of lunar rocks from different places using machine guns, which, on command from Earth, took a soil sample and returned to Earth with it. Moreover, Soviet lunar rovers (automatic self-propelled laboratories, Fig. 51) were sent to the Moon, which performed many scientific measurements and soil analyzes and traveled considerable distances on the Moon - several tens of kilometers. Even in those places on the lunar surface that look smooth from Earth, the soil is replete with craters and strewn with stones of all kinds of sizes. The Lunokhod "step by step", controlled from the Earth by radio, moved taking into account the nature of the terrain, the view of which was transmitted to Earth on television. This is the greatest achievement Soviet science and humanity is important not only as proof of the unlimited capabilities of the human mind and technology, but also as a direct study of physical conditions on another celestial body. It is also important because it confirms most of the conclusions that astronomers made only from analyzing the light of the Moon coming to us from a distance of 380,000 km.

Rice. 51. Soviet lunar rover.

The study of lunar relief and its origin is also interesting for geology - the Moon is like a museum ancient history its crust, since water and wind do not destroy it. But the Moon is not a completely dead world. In 1958, Soviet astronomer N.A. Kozyrev noticed the release of gases from the lunar interior in the Alphonse crater.

Both internal and external forces apparently took part in the formation of the lunar relief. The role of tectonic and volcanic phenomena is undeniable, since on the Moon there are fault lines, chains of craters, a huge table mountain with slopes the same as those of the craters. There are similarities between lunar craters and lava lakes Hawaiian Islands. Smaller craters were formed by impacts of large meteorites. There are also a number of craters on Earth formed by meteorite impacts. As for the lunar “seas,” they are apparently formed by the melting of the lunar crust and the outpouring of lava from volcanoes. Of course, on the Moon, as on Earth, the main stages of mountain formation occurred in the distant past. Numerous craters discovered on some other bodies of the planetary system, for example on Mars and Mercury, should have the same origin as those on the Moon. Intensive crater formation is apparently associated with low gravity on the surface of the planets and with the rarefaction of their atmosphere, which does little to mitigate the bombardment of meteorites.

Soviet space stations They established the absence of a magnetic field and radiation belts on the Moon and the presence of radioactive elements on it.

1. Are the same constellations visible from the Moon (are they visible in the same way) as from the Earth?
2. On the edge of the Moon you can see a tooth-shaped mountain 1" high. Calculate its height in kilometers.
3. Using the formulas (§ 12.2), determine the diameter of the lunar cirque Alphonse (in km), measuring it in Figure 47 and knowing that the angular diameter of the Moon as seen from Earth is about 30" and its distance is about 380,000 km