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Moon History: NASA Video Shows Volcanoes, Meteorite Impacts That Made Craters (VIDEO)

personperson Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
edited March 2012 in General Banter
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/moon-evolution-history-video-nasa_n_1347087.html


How did the 'man in the moon' take shape? A new NASA video on lunar evolution explains the process, from the moon's beginnings as a ball of magma to the intricate craters we see today. It's 4.5 billion years compressed into three minutes.

Comments

  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    Didn't know the dark "seas" were lava plains. Cool.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    Didn't know the dark "seas" were lava plains. Cool.
    Same here, quite interesting thanks for posting. I often wonder however how do scientists produce these stats of when things have happened going back such a long long time. I know carbon dating can be done in some situations, I guess a lot of the science is just way too advanced for me to understand.
  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
    Oh yeah, I just love stuff like this.

    and @RichardH what scientists can do is pull together different evidence, like chemical and atomic analysis of moon rocks and asteroids found on earth, along with observed models of the formation of the solar system and frequency of asteroid strikes over long periods of time to get pretty accurate estimates of events on a cosmic scale. Remember "plus or minus a million years" is only accurate when you're talking about billions of years as a time scale.
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    Oh yeah, I just love stuff like this.

    and @RichardH what scientists can do is pull together different evidence, like chemical and atomic analysis of moon rocks and asteroids found on earth, along with observed models of the formation of the solar system and frequency of asteroid strikes over long periods of time to get pretty accurate estimates of events on a cosmic scale. Remember "plus or minus a million years" is only accurate when you're talking about billions of years as a time scale.
    I have heard that it may be possible to know the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere orbiting another star through spectral analysis. Do you know anything about this?

  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
    Only when the world crosses in front of its sun. Then we see the world's sunlight filtered through the atmosphere around the edge of the disk that makes up the world. Spectrum analysis is an exact science. The scientists can determine atomic and molecular composition of gasses from the light spectrum examined. Of course, a lot of this is possible because of space based telescopes, since our own atmosphere acts as a filter.
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited March 2012
    No need to figure out interstellar travel then? If the science is so exact that it can detect starlight filtered through the atmosphere of a planet in another solar system (mind blowing!), then it should be possible to detect the telltale signs of life. I always loved the idea of a life carrying planet that has not evolved "intelligence" and remains an animal planet.. a whole world coming into being and passing out of being, full of life, and never a tool made. I imagine, even if life is rare out there, the sheer numbers make for a profusion of possibilities.

    Why do we always assume that life must evolve toward bigger brains?.. and then at some point there must be an alien Marconi? Weird.
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