Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The lunar geological timescale (or selenological timescale) divides the history of Earth 's Moon into five generally recognized periods: the Copernican, Eratosthenian, Imbrian (Late and Early epochs), Nectarian, and Pre-Nectarian. The boundaries of this time scale are related to large impact events that have modified the lunar surface, changes ...
Geologic history. Cliffs in the lunar crust indicate the Moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and is still shrinking today. The geological history of the Moon has been defined into six major epochs, called the lunar geologic timescale. Starting about 4.5 billion years ago, [16] the newly formed Moon was in a molten state and was ...
The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
Detailed logarithmic timeline – Timeline of the universe, Earth, and mankind; Earth phase – Phases of the Earth as seen from the Moon; Evolutionary history of life; Future of Earth – Long-term extrapolated geological and biological changes of planet Earth; Geological history of Earth – The sequence of major geological events in Earth's past
Geologic time is the timescale used to calculate dates in the planet's geologic history from its origin (currently estimated to have been some 4,600 million years ago) to the present day. Radiometric dating measures the steady decay of radioactive elements in an object to determine its age. It is used to calculate dates for the older part of ...
The Moon is Earth 's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period (lunar day) at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always ...
There are several geologic deposits on the valley floor originating from a variety of events in the geologic timeline of the Moon. One of these formations, the light mantle, is a deposit of lightly colored material in a series of projections extending about six kilometres (3.7 mi) from the south massif across the floor.
Internal structure of the Moon. Moon's internal structure. Olivine basalt collected by Apollo 15. Thermal state of the Moon at age 100 Ma. [1] Having a mean density of 3,346.4 kg/m 3, [2] the Moon is a differentiated body, being composed of a geochemically distinct crust, mantle, and planetary core. This structure is believed to have resulted ...