The moon in Roman mythology is the goddess of night light. 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 motive of the month's courtship of the sun and their weddings is widespread: after the wedding, the month leaves the sun, for which the thunder god takes revenge and cuts the month in half. In Armenian mythology, Lusin ("moon") - a young man asked his mother, who was holding the dough, for a bun. An angry mother gave Lusin a slap in the face, from which he flew into the sky. Until now, traces of the dough are visible on his face. According to popular beliefs, the phases of the moon are associated with the life cycles of Tsar Lusin: the new moon - with his youth, the full moon - with maturity; when the moon decreases and a crescent appears, Lusin's old age sets in, who then goes to paradise (dies). He returns from paradise reborn.

There are also known myths about the origin of the moon from parts of the body (most often from the left and right eyes). Most of the peoples of the world have special Lunar myths explaining the appearance of spots on the moon, most often by the fact that there is a special person there ("lunar man" or "lunar woman"). Many peoples attach special importance to the deity of the moon, believing that it provides the necessary elements for all living things.

Moon relief

Traditionally, there are two main types of landscape on the Moon - continents and seas. The predominant relief form of the lunar surface is the lunar seas, which are huge dark depressions. Of course, there is no water in these seas, but that is how these depressions were named in the distant past for their darkish color; these names have been preserved for them to this day. Smaller dark spots, by analogy with the seas, were named bays, lakes and swamps. The main seas are concentrated within the visible hemisphere. The largest marine formation is the Ocean of Storms. It is adjoined by the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains from the northeast, the Sea of \u200b\u200bMoisture and the Sea of \u200b\u200bClouds from the south. In the eastern half of the disk visible from the ground, the Sea of \u200b\u200bClarity, the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility and the Sea of \u200b\u200bAbundance stretch in a chain from northwest to southeast. This chain is adjoined from the south by the Sea of \u200b\u200bNectar, and from the northeast - by the Sea of \u200b\u200bCrises. Relatively small in size marine areas are located on the border of the visible and reverse hemispheres. These are the East Sea, the Regional Sea, the Smith Sea and the South Sea. On the reverse side, there is only one significant formation of the marine type - the Moscow Sea. Seas not correct shape in most cases they adjoin circular seas. The largest circular sea, the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains, has preserved only one of the outer rings in the form of mountain ranges of the Alps, the Caucasus, the Apennines and the Carpathians.

In addition to the seas, ring mountains are scattered over huge areas, which are circular in the central parts of the visible lunar disk, and elliptical at the edge of the disk. Ring mountains are large and small circular formations, unevenly deepened, surrounded by ramparts that rise 0.5-1.5 km above the surrounding area. Ring mountains with a diameter of more than 35 km were called lunar circuses, and the rest - of smaller diameters - were called lunar craters. Small craters are located across the entire surface of the Moon: on its plains, at the bottom of the seas, on mountain ranges and other formations.

You can find mountain valleys, which are narrow, long straight strips stretching for tens of kilometers. Thus, the valley in the Alps mountain range is 120 km long and 10-15 km wide.

Typical formations are the lunar mountains, the height of individual peaks of which reaches 9 km, and mountain ranges, similar to the terrestrial ones and received by analogy the names of the terrestrial mountain ranges of the Caucasus, the Alps, and the Apennines.

Systems of various cracks and rays emanating from the bases of craters, furrows and light rays are widespread. The total number of radiant craters visible on a full moon is about 300 on the visible side of the moon.

Marine and continental landscapes are located at different altitude levels. On the scale of the entire lunar globe, the difference between the average levels of the continents and seas reaches 2.3 km. Within the visible hemisphere, this value is 1.4 km. The average level of the circular seas is 1.3 km below the average level of irregular seas and almost 4 km below the level of the continents.

The lunar surface is lifeless and empty. Its feature is the complete absence of atmospheric effects that are observed on Earth. Night and day come instantly, as soon as the rays of the Sun appear.

Due to the lack of a medium for the propagation of sound waves, complete silence reigns on the surface.

The Moon's axis of rotation is tilted only 1.5 0 from the normal to the ecliptic, so the Moon has no seasons, no changes in the seasons. Sunlight is always nearly horizontal at the lunar poles, making these areas constantly cold and dark.

The lunar surface changes under the influence of human activities, meteorite bombardments, irradiation with high-energy particles (X-rays and cosmic rays). These factors do not have a noticeable effect, but during astronomical times, the surface layer — regolith — is strongly plowed up.

When a meteoric particle hits the surface of the Moon, a miniature explosion occurs and particles of soil and meteorite matter are scattered in all directions. Most of these particles leave the gravitational field of the moon.

The range of daily temperature fluctuations is 250 0 С. It fluctuates from 101 0 to -153 0. But the heating and cooling of rocks is slow. A rapid change in temperature occurs only during lunar eclipses. It was measured that the temperature changes from 71 to - 79 C per hour.

The temperature of the underlying layers was measured by radio astronomy methods, it turned out to be constant at a depth of 1 m and equal to -50 C at the equator. This means that the top layer is a good heat insulator.

Analysis of the lunar rocks brought to Earth showed that they were never exposed to water.

The average density of the moon is 3.3 g / cm 3.

The period of the Moon's revolution around the axis is equal to the period of its revolution around the Earth, therefore it is observed from the Earth on only one side. The far side of the moon was first photographed in 1959.

Light areas of the lunar surface are called continents and occupy 60% of its surface. These are rugged mountainous areas. The remaining 40% of the surface is sea. These are depressions filled with dark lava and dust. They were named in the 17th century.

The continents are crossed by mountain ranges located along the coasts of the seas. The highest height of the lunar mountains reaches 9 km.

Lunar craters are mostly of meteorite origin. There are few volcanic ones, but there are also combined ones. The largest lunar craters are up to 100 km in diameter.

Bright flares were observed on the Moon, which may be associated with volcanic eruptions.

The moon has almost no liquid core, as evidenced by the absence magnetic field... Magnetometers show that the moon's magnetic field does not exceed 1 / 10,000 of the earth's.

Atmosphere:

Although the Moon is surrounded by a vacuum that is more perfect than that which can be created in the laboratory on Earth, its atmosphere is vast and of high scientific interest.

During a two-week lunar day, atoms and molecules knocked out by a series of processes from the lunar surface onto ballistic trajectories are ionized by solar radiation and then driven by electromagnetic effects like plasma.

The position of the moon in orbit determines the behavior of the atmosphere.

The dimensions of atmospheric phenomena were measured by a number of instruments placed on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts. But analyzing the data was made difficult by the fact that the natural lunar atmosphere is so negligible that pollution from gases emanating from Apollo significantly affected the results.

The main gases on the Moon are neon, hydrogen, helium, argon.

In addition to surface gases, a small amount of dust was found circulating up to several meters above the surface.

The number of atoms and molecules per unit volume of the atmosphere is less than a trillionth of the number of particles contained in a unit volume of the earth's atmosphere at sea level. The moon's gravity is too small to keep the molecules near the surface.

Any body with a speed greater than 2.4 km / s will get out of the moon's gravitational control. This speed is slightly higher average speed hydrogen molecules at ambient temperature. Dissipation of hydrogen occurs almost instantly. Dissipation of oxygen and nitrogen occurs more slowly, because these molecules are heavier. In astronomically short periods of time, the Moon is capable of losing all of its atmosphere, if it ever had one.

Now the atmosphere is being replenished from interplanetary space.

M. Mendillo and D. Bomgardner (Boston University) after analyzing the results of observations of complete lunar eclipse 11/29/1993 came to the conclusion that the lunar atmosphere is 2 times longer (equal to 10 times the diameter of the moon) than previously thought.

It is not supported by impacts of micrometeorites and elementary particles on the lunar soil solar wind (protons and electrons), and exposure to light and heat photons of solar radiation.

The main components are sodium and potassium atoms and ions knocked out of the lunar soil. The atmosphere is very thin, but sodium atoms are easily excited and emit strong, so they are easy to detect. (Nature 5.10.1995).

Origin:By prevailing modern theories The moon was formed together with the Earth from one planetesimal. Scientists believe that initially the Moon was very close to the Earth, and J. Darwin wrote that the Moon was once in contact with the Earth and the period of rotation of two bodies was about 4 hours. But this assumption seems unlikely. Many believe that the Moon was formed at a distance much less than half of the present. In this case, tidal waves on Earth would have to reach 1 km.

There are other theories as well. New evidence has been found for the hypothesis that the Moon was formed from the collision of a body with the Earth.

According to the data of the moon satellite "Clementine", processed at the Hawaiian University

those (USA), a map was made of the percentage of iron on the lunar surface. It can vary from 0% in the mountains to 14% at the bottom of the seas. If the Moon had the same mineralogical composition as the Earth, then there would be much more iron. So it is unlikely to have formed from the same protoplanetary cloud with the Earth.

The vast regions on the far side of the moon contain no iron at all, but are covered in anorthosite, a rock rich in aluminum. Pure anorthosite is rare on Earth.

Impact on Earth: The Americans R. Bolling and R. Serveni studied data on

global temperature distribution obtained from satellites between 1797 and 1994. From the data it follows that the Earth is warm when the moon is full, and cold when the moon is in a new moon. With its light on a full moon, the Moon heats the Earth by 0.02 0 C. Even such temperature changes can affect the Earth's climate. (Astronomy Now, May 1995).

On the moon, it is customary to distinguish areas of two types: light - continental, occupying 83% of the area of \u200b\u200bthe lunar ball, and dark - sea, accounting for 17%. The continents are distinguished by a higher reflectivity, since they are composed of relatively light rocks of the anorthosite type, the presence of significant irregularities and many ovaries of different sizes and degree of preservation of the bank. The seas are relatively flat areas covered with dark New-type lava flows, with fewer ovules. Thus, the seas are darker than the continents, both because of the difference in the composition of the rocks, and because of the different structure of the surface (the seas are smoother and therefore scatter light less strongly).

The seas lie below the level of the continental surface. For example, the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is 3 km below, and the Sea of \u200b\u200bMoisture is 2 km below the surrounding area. On the eastern limb, near a, dark spots of the Edge Sea and the Smith Sea are visible. Interestingly, in one of the projects for creating a future lunar base, the Smith Sea is named among the possible places for conducting research work. The area of \u200b\u200ba small patch of the Sea of \u200b\u200bWaves is only 21 thousand km2. The most clearly distinguished border of the Sea of \u200b\u200bCrises, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich is 176 thousand km2. The bottom of this sea is located 3.5 km below the surrounding area. At its edge, one can see a bright one with a ray system - Proclus 28 km in diameter.

The Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility, equal in area to the Black Sea on Earth (421 thousand km2), is famous for the fact that it was here that the American astronaut Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. probe "16" (1970) took a sample of the lunar soil and delivered it to Earth. On the border of the Sea of \u200b\u200bClarity with the mainland, the self-propelled apparatus "Lunokhod 2" (1973) carried out research

The area of \u200b\u200bthe Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is 829 thousand km2. The dark region south of Copernicus was recently named the Sea of \u200b\u200bIslands. The Sea of \u200b\u200bthe Poznannoe got its name after the American Ranger 7 probe landed here in 1964. The first self-propelled lunar Lunokhod 1 (1970-71) made its journey to the south of the Rainbow Bay.

To the left of the Sea of \u200b\u200bClouds in the mainland, there is a chain of three ovaries, the dimensions of which exceed 100 km. The middle of them, Alphonse, is known for the fact that in 1957 a glow was observed there, recorded on the spectrograms. The brightest one with a powerful ray system is named after Tycho Brahe, who compiled tables of planetary displacement, on the basis of which Kepler derived the laws of planetary motion.

Rock formations on the Moon are part of the rings that line the circular seas. Back in the middle of the seventeenth century, the Polish Jan Hevelius proposed calling the mountains on the moon the same names as on Earth. Alps, Caucasus, Apennines, Carpathians, Jura are located around the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains. The Nectar Sea is surrounded by the Altai and Pyrenees mountains. The Cordillera Mountains and the Ruka Mountains surround the East Sea. The highest mountains on the moon are the Apennines: there, the height of individual ridges reaches 5.6 km above the surface of the neighboring Sea of \u200b\u200bRains. The Jura Mountains rise 5 km above the Rainbow Bay, while in the Carpathians only individual hills reach a height of 2 km above the surrounding terrain.

The predominant relief form of the moon is s. If a shaft is clear, well-preserved, then this is a sign of relative youth, while those with destroyed shafts are older. Large slopes often have a central hill at the bottom and slopes on the inner slopes, such as Copernicus and Aristarchus. In older ovaries, slides and sy are less common. A special group is composed of s with ray systems, which are long light stripes radiating radially from the shaft a. The rays can be seen not always, but only under certain conditions of surface illumination. These formations are most clearly manifested at the full moon. At other phases, they are less noticeable, and in the regions close to the terminator, they are not observed at all. The rays are found both in large ovaries, for example, Tycho with a diameter of 87 km, and in small, but necessarily young ones. There are several dozen of them with ray systems on the Moon.

Valleys - distinctly isolated depressions several kilometers wide and tens and hundreds of kilometers long - are found on the slopes of vast mountain areas (for example, the Alpine Valley), as well as in mainland regions (for example, the Reita Valley). Narrower, longer, but not steep hollows, which retain the same width throughout, are called furrows (for example, Sirsalis furrows). They often stretch for hundreds of kilometers, regardless of the surface topography. Steep faults are called cracks. In the seas, sometimes there are ledges - typical faults; for example, in the Sea of \u200b\u200bClouds, the Straight Wall ledge is known.

On the far side of the Moon, very large ring structures, more than 300 km in diameter, called basins, attract particular attention. The largest of them, such as the East Sea, Hertzsprung, Apollo, Korolev, the Moscow Sea and others, have, in addition to the outer shaft, an inner shaft, the diameter of which is, as a rule, half the outer one. Sometimes the inner rings are badly damaged.

It is curious that some large basins on the far side of the Moon are antipodes of the seas on the visible side. For example, Korolev is the antipode of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAbundance, and Hertzsprung is the Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility.

To the northeast of the East Sea, giant chains of ovaries extend radially, extending for distances of up to thousands of kilometers. The diameter of the ovaries included in these chains is on average 10-20 km. The three longest chains were named GDL (Gas Dynamic Laboratory), GIRD (Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion) and RNII (Jet Research Institute). These three scientific organizations have made the main contribution to the development of rocketry in our country.

S, individual mountain peaks (peaks, capes), as well as ridges are called (posthumously) by the names of s and outstanding scientists of other specialties. The exception is the 12 s, named after living cosmonauts and astronauts. All proposed names are approved by the International Union. The general rule of planetary nomenclature is not to use the names of political and religious leaders, military leaders and philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Moon maps are used to solve important scientific and practical problems: reconstructing the history of the lunar surface, planning expeditions to the moon.

4.3. Relief of the lunar surface.

The relief of the lunar surface was mainly clarified as a result of many years of telescopic observations. “Lunar seas”, which occupy about 40% of the visible surface of the Moon, are flat lowlands, intersected by cracks and low winding ramparts; there are relatively few large craters on the seas. Many seas are surrounded by concentric ring ridges. The rest, lighter surface is covered with numerous craters, ring-shaped ridges, grooves, and so on. Craters less than 15-20 kilometers have a simple cup-shaped shape, larger craters (up to 200 kilometers) consist of a rounded rampart with steep inner slopes, have a relatively flat bottom, deeper than the surrounding area, often with a central hill. The heights of mountains above the surrounding terrain are determined by the length of the shadows on the lunar surface or photometrically. In this way, hypsometric maps were compiled at 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 the hypsometric maps based on them give only a general idea of \u200b\u200bthe 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 precisely. For this zone, the German scientist F. Hein, the Soviet scientist A. A. Nefediev, and the American scientist C. Watts compiled hypsometric maps that are used to take into account the irregularities of the lunar edge during observations to determine the coordinates of the moon (such observations are made by meridian circles and from photographs of the moon against the background of surrounding stars, as well as from observations of star coverings). By micrometric measurements, the selenographic coordinates of several main control points are determined in relation to the lunar equator and the middle meridian of the Moon, which serve to anchor a large number of other points on the surface of the Moon. In this case, the main starting point is a small regular shape and well visible near the center of the lunar disk Mösting crater. The structure of the lunar surface was mainly studied by photometric and polarimetric observations, supplemented by radio astronomy research.

Craters on the lunar surface have different relative ages: from ancient, barely distinguishable, heavily 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, craters are cut into the surface of the lunar seas, and in others, the rocks of the seas overlap the craters. Tectonic ruptures either cut craters and seas, or they themselves are overlapped by younger formations. These and other relationships make it possible to establish the sequence of the appearance of various structures on the lunar surface; in 1949 the Soviet scientist A.V.Khabakov divided the lunar formations into several successive age complexes. Further development This approach made it possible by the end of the 60s to draw up medium-scale geological maps for a significant part of the lunar surface. The absolute age of the lunar formations is known so far only at a few points; however, using some indirect methods, it can be established that the age of the youngest large craters is tens and millions of years, and the bulk of large craters arose in the “Domor” 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 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 amount of meteorites and asteroids fell on the surface of the Moon in the early stages - the remnants of a protoplanetary cloud, during the explosions of which craters appeared - from microscopic holes to ring structures with a diameter of many tens, and possibly up to several hundred kilometers. Due to the lack of atmosphere and hydrosphere, a significant part of these craters have survived to this day. Now meteorites fall on the moon much less frequently; volcanism also largely stopped, as the moon consumed 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, the spectrograms of which were first obtained by the Soviet astronomer N.A.Kozyrev.

4.4. Lunar soil.

Wherever they landed spacecraft, The moon is covered by the so-called regolith. This is a variegated clastic-dusty layer with a thickness of several meters to several tens of meters. It arose as a result of crushing, mixing and sintering of lunar rocks during the fall of meteorites and micrometeorites. Due to the influence of the solar wind, the regolith is saturated with neutral gases. Particles of meteorite matter were found among the fragments of the regolith. From radioisotopes, it was found that some debris on the surface of the regolith had been in the same place for tens and hundreds of millions of years. Among the samples delivered to Earth, there are two types of rocks: volcanic (lavas) and rocks formed due to the fragmentation and melting of lunar formations during meteorite falls. The bulk of volcanic rocks are similar to terrestrial basalts. Apparently, all lunar seas are composed of such rocks.

In addition, in the lunar soil there are fragments of other rocks similar to those on Earth and the so-called KREEP, a rock enriched in potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus. Obviously, these rocks are fragments of the lunar continents. Luna-20 and Apollo-16, which landed on the lunar continents, brought from there anorthosite-type rocks. All types of rocks were formed as a result of long evolution in the bowels of the moon. According to a number of signs, lunar rocks differ from terrestrial ones: they have very little water, little potassium, sodium and other volatile elements, in some samples there is a lot of titanium and iron. The age of these rocks, determined from the ratios of radioactive elements, is 3–4.5 billion years, which corresponds to the most ancient periods of the Earth's development.

NEWS.12 September 2002. Here is the full text of the publication entitled "The Earth May Have a New Moon." An amateur astronomer may have discovered a new natural satellite of the Earth. According to experts, a new moon could appear quite recently. About mysterious object under the number J002E2, much remains unclear. Perhaps it is a piece of stone ...

Going back to the 16th century. ... And it glows Well, but light flashes are, in general, an old story. There are thousands of testimonies about fires, flashes and radiance. Jessup, one of the first serious researchers to link the moon to a UFO, reports that flashes of light lasting about an hour or more were observed throughout the 19th century. Astronomer Herschel (the one who discovered Uranus) saw during a total eclipse of the moon 150 ...

Of the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains, transferred photo panoramas, performed chemical analyzes of the soil. This experiment has greatly enriched our knowledge of natural satellite Earth and showed the promise of further exploration of the Moon and planets by self-propelled vehicles. On the panoramas obtained by Lunokhod-1, craters of several types appear. Selenologists have arranged the craters in a row according to their severity - from the most ...

A man's foot has stepped. Freeek Bormann, Commander spaceship "Apollo 8" said: "The flight became possible for us thanks to the work of thousands of people. And not only in the USA. Without the first artificial satellite of the Earth and the flight of Yuri Gagarin, without research of scientists from many countries, flights to the Moon could not take place ... the earth is really very small planet. We saw it with our own eyes, and, earthlings, its inhabitants, ...

The relief of the lunar surface was mainly clarified as a result of many years of telescopic observations. “Lunar seas”, which occupy about 40% of the visible surface of the Moon, are flat lowlands, intersected by cracks and low winding ramparts; there are relatively few large craters on the seas. Many seas are surrounded by concentric ring ridges. The rest, lighter surface is covered with numerous craters, ring-shaped ridges, grooves, and so on. Craters less than 15-20 kilometers have a simple cup-shaped shape, larger craters (up to 200 kilometers) consist of a rounded rampart with steep inner slopes, have a relatively flat bottom, deeper than the surrounding area, often with a central hill. The heights of mountains above the surrounding terrain are determined by the length of the shadows on the lunar surface or photometrically. In this way, hypsometric maps were compiled at 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 a general idea of \u200b\u200bthe 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 precisely. For this zone, the German scientist F. Hein, the Soviet scientist A.A.Nefediev, the American scientist C. Watts compiled hypsometric maps that are used to take into account the irregularities of the lunar edge during observations in order to determine the coordinates of the moon (such observations are made by meridian circles and from photographs of the moon against the background of surrounding stars, as well as from observations of star coverings). By micrometric measurements, the selenographic coordinates of several main control points are determined in relation to the lunar equator and the middle meridian of the Moon, which serve to anchor a large number of other points on the surface of the Moon. In this case, the main starting point is a small regular shape and well visible near the center of the lunar disk Mösting crater. The structure of the lunar surface was mainly studied by photometric and polarimetric observations, supplemented by radio astronomy research.

Craters on the lunar surface have different relative ages: from ancient, barely discernible, heavily reworked formations to very clear outlines of young craters, sometimes surrounded by light "rays". At the same time, young craters overlap older ones. In some cases, craters are cut into the surface of the lunar seas, while in others, the rocks of the seas overlap the craters. Tectonic ruptures either cut craters and seas, or they themselves are overlapped by younger formations. These and other relationships make it possible to establish the sequence of the appearance of various structures on the lunar surface; in 1949 the Soviet scientist A.V.Khabakov divided the lunar formations into several successive age complexes. Further development of this approach made it possible by the end of the 60s to draw up medium-scale geological maps for a significant part of the lunar surface. The absolute age of the 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 millions of years, and the bulk of the large craters arose in the “Domor” period, 3-4 billion years ago.