ASTR 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Lunar Mare, Geology Of The Moon, Impact Crater

• School: UCSC
• Department: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Course: ASTR 3
• Professor: Fortney

Document Summary

What geological processes shaped our moon: lunar maria: smooth, dark lunar maria are less heavily cratered than lunar highlands, maria were made by oods of runny lava, formation of lunar maria: Early moon surface is covered with craters. Heat build up allows lava to well up to surface. Cooled lava is smoother and darker than surroundings: surface gardening (most of the surface on the moon) Micrometeorites are not ltered by an atmosphere and constantly pulverize the surface to a ne dust: moon"s current geology. Moon is considered geologically dead because geological processes have virtually stopped. There is! i mean there"s ice, not liquid water, but basically yes: it"s the most impacted object near us so there"s a bunch of impact craters. What geological processes shaped mercury: surface of moon and mercury look very similar, has a mixture of heavily cratered and smooth regions like the moon. Cooling of metal core --> shrinking of metal core.