Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Mare Imbrium, Soft Drink, Dynamo Theory
19 Mar 2019
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We are all familiar with our moon (fig. The moon is bright enough to be seen easily by day, and it dominates our night. Its obvious and extensive cratering attracts many young astronomers to learn more about its topography and formation. At this point in the course, we already know one major thing about the moon: we know that it is the product of a gigantic glancing collision between earth and a planet that we call theia. The collision resulted in a mixing of the two bodies, with. Earth getting most of the metal core of the impacting body, leaving the moon with relatively low density material richer in silicon, aluminum, magnesium and oxygen than in elements like iron and nickel. We also know that, following the collision, the two bodies became solar dance partners", meaning that there is a gravitational attraction between the two that dictates the physical properties of their orbital and rotational motion.
