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The Waning Moon Saturday, April 24, 2010 - Anuradha Menon Home >> Picture Of The Day >> Space   
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| A series of short exposures through a near-infrared filter was obtained of the waning Moon at sunrise on January 12 (at about 10 hrs UT), i.e. about 5 days before New Moon (24.3 days "old"). As can be seen in the image, Blanketed on top of the Moon's crust is a highly comminuted (broken into ever smaller particles) and "impact gardened" surface layer called regolith. Several 0.1 sec exposures were made through a near-infrared filtre (856 nm; FWHM 14 nm). | ||||||||||
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Since the regolith forms by impact processes, the regolith of older surfaces is generally thicker than for younger surfaces. In particular, it has been estimated that the regolith varies in thickness from about 3–5 m in the maria, and by about 10–20 m in the highlands. Beneath the finely comminuted regolith layer is what is generally referred to as the megaregolith. This layer is many kilometres thicker and comprises highly fractured bedrock. Astronauts have reported that the dust from the surface felt like snow and smelled like spent gunpowder. The dust is mostly made of silicon dioxide glass (SiO2), most likely created from the meteors that have crashed into the Moon's surface. It also contains calcium and magnesium. (Source: ESO/ Wikipedia) |
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