Ch2 Astro W8 The Earth Moon System

QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY
DIFFUN CAMPUS
Diffun, 3401 Quirino
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE
IN
ES 102 (ASTRONOMY )
BY:
CYNTHIA A. CABICUNGAN
Subject Instructor
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Module 1 Earth and Moon

Competencies Describe the primary surface features of the moon and explain why they are different from Earth’s
Explain the factors causing the Moon to have so little internal acivity or atmosphere.
Describe how tides cause Earth’s spin to slow and to cause the Moon’s distance to grow
Discussion Earth and Moon
The view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts

as they came from behind the Moon after the fourth nearside
orbit. Earth is about five degrees above the horizon in the
photo. The unnamed surface features in the foreground are
near the eastern limb of the Moon as viewed from Earth. The
lunar horizon is approximately 780 kilometers from the
spacecraft. Width of the photographed area at the horizon is
about 175 kilometers. On the Earth 240,000 miles away, the
sunset terminator bisects Africa.
By studying the Earth and the Moon, scientists have been able to piece together their linked histories.
Our planet and its satellite are a double system that formed 4.6 billion years ago. The Moon probably
originated during a gigantic collision in the late stages of planetary formation, after the Earth's
iron core formed. The Moon formed close to the Earth from the ejected material, and it has been
slowly moving outward in its orbit ever since, due to tidal forces. The age of the Earth-Moon system
and the chronology of the Earth's history are measured using the technique of radioactive decay.
This well-understood physical process also provides the energy that drives most of the Earth's
geological evolution.
Both the Earth and the Moon at one time had molten or partially molten interiors. This
allowed differentiation – the gravitational separation of rocks by their density within a planet. This
process explains the overall compositional structure of the Earth and the Moon, with a dense core at
the center and lighter rocks forming a crust at the surface.
Unlike the Moon, the Earth is large enough to have retained a large part of that original
internal heat for the past 4.5 billion years, and it is also experiencing continued heating from the
radioactive decay of materials in its crust. Only the thin outer lithosphere is rigid. Much of its mantle is
hot and plastic, with a slow circulation of molten rock that creates stresses in the lithosphere, causing
earthquakes and plate tectonic activity. Plate tectonics describes the constant shifting and
reformation of plates, including continents, on the Earth's surface. This geological activity explains
why most of the Earth's surface is relatively young, most of it being no more than a few hundred
million years old.
Early Estimates of Earth's Age
If you look at the long march of human understanding, science begins with the idea that we can
understand our role in the universe using logic and observation. For example, the stars and planets
were mysterious objects for most of human history. Yet ancient Greek philosophers were able to use
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reasoned arguments and simple geometry to estimate the sizes and distances of our neighbors in
space. Similarly, the most important scientific step in understanding Earth's history was not one
particular set of measurements, but rather the mental leap of realizing that Earth had a history that
could be unraveled by scientific observations and measurements. This happened mostly in the 16th
and 17th centuries with the Renaissance and then with a period of time called the Enlightenment.
One example of how science works is humanity's long, step-by-step search to find the age of the
Earth.
James Ussher, the person who originally deduced that the Earth has only
been around since 4004 B.C.
In the Middle Ages, scholars thought they could calculate Earth's age by
finding out how long humans had lived on Earth. They assumed that
humanity had been around almost since Earth itself formed. Therefore,
scholars analyzed ancient records, especially Biblical scriptures that listed
the generations since Adam and Eve.
They concluded that humanity, Earth, and the whole cosmos were only a few thousand years old.
The most famous calculation was made by Irish Archbishop James Ussher in 1650. Ussher deduced
that the cosmos formed on Sunday, October 23, in 4004 B.C., and that humanity was created on
Friday, October 28 the same year. Even today, some people — especially fundamentalist religious
groups — still believe that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, based on this method of
reasoning.
In the Renaissance, scientists began to question the Bible as a basis for estimating the age of the
Earth. They realized that a vast panorama of geological processes must have occurred, for which
6,000 years was simply not enough time. In 1519, Leonardo da Vinci noticed fossil seashells
embedded high in mountains, indicating that rocks on the peaks had once been under the sea. Such
observations led to a new field of study, called natural history.
It is certainly possible to imagine that the Earth has always existed and has never changed. It is also
possible to imagine that a creator put everything in place just as we see it today. Natural history
implied that the world is changing all the time, and physical processes shape and alter our
surroundings. The world we see today might not be the way the world was originally created.
Scientists worked hard to figure out how long geological processes had been going on.
John Ray
A breakthrough occurred in the 1670s, at a time when Newton was at the

height of his research. Around 1671, the "father of English Natural
History," John Ray, observed a bed of sand 100 feet thick deposited on
top of cockleshells at Amsterdam. This discovery meant that 100 feet of
sediment had been deposited after the cockles had been alive. Ray
realized he could calculate how long this deposition process had been
active. We can easily follow his logic.
He had to make a separate determination of the rate at which sand is
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deposited. Then he divided the depth of the sediments by their measured rate of accumulation. By
making a simple division he was also implicitly assuming that the average rate of deposition did not
change much. According to his calculations, it would have taken at least 10,000 years for the sand
layers to be deposited. This was "a strange thing," John Ray wrote, "considering [that the age of the
Earth] according to the usual account is not yet 5,600 years."
The next step toward pinning down the age of our planet was to think about the cooling of Earth.
Scientists believed the Earth had once been molten — volcanoes were considered to be evidence of
this. This hypothesis suggested a simple question: how long would a molten Earth take to cool to
present-day temperatures?
Newton approached the problem theoretically. In the 1680s, he calculated that "a globe of red-hot
iron equal to our Earth...would scarcely cool...in 50,000 years." Newton's calculation inspired Buffon's
odd experiments. Buffon made actual measurements of the cooling times of small solid globes. He
then extrapolated to the much larger size of the Earth and concluded that Earth's age must be at
least 75,000 years — ten times as long as the Biblical chronology. Buffon even suggested that this
result might be too short. He speculated that Earth might be as much as three million years old!
The frontispiece from Charles Lyell's Principles of

Geology (second American edition, 1857), showing
the origins of different rock types.
Charles Lyell
Evidence mounted in
the 19th century that the
Earth was far older than
previously believed. The
new field of geology added to this evidence. The method of using layers
and deposition rates to date rocks improved in the 1800s. Scottish
scientist Charles Lyell, known as the father of modern geology, and
others made two important discoveries.
First, they studied sedimentary layers exposed in canyons in many parts

of the world and realized that the total depth of sediments is immense.
One estimate gave 72,000 feet of sediments as a typical figure in some
regions. This meant the old estimates of the time needed to deposit the
sediment of a single river were much too short for the age of the whole
Earth. Second, geologists found evidence that mountains had gone through many cycles of erosion,
subsidence, and uplift.
Using deposition rates to calculate the age of one area might represent only one cycle, not the age of
Earth itself. Lyell, in 1830, like Buffon before him, wrote that "millions of years" would have been
required to form all the features seen on Earth. Thus, by the late 1800s, most scholars accepted that
Earth must be at least millions of years old. Many suspected that even this was an underestimate
since erosion and other forces wear away at the surface of the planet.
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You can see why the idea of an old Earth is a conceptual leap. Except for violent events like
earthquakes and volcanoes, the geological changes of the Earth are imperceptible. Even over the
span of a lifetime, erosion and deposition sculpt our surroundings very subtly. We see a snapshot in
a long geological history, and we must use the patterns in the Earth to unravel that history.
Ages of the Earth and Moon
Understanding the age of the Earth was more difficult than early scientists imagined. The answer
couldn't be found by counting generations of humans. The answer couldn't be found by measuring
sedimentary layers. It wasn't until radioactive decay processes started to be understood in the 1890s
that people could begin to get an accurate measure of the age of both the Earth and the Moon.
How did scientists pin down the ages of the Earth and the Moon? Using radioactive dating of rocks,
we can measure the time since the rock was last melted. When rocks form from molten material,
parent (and forming daughter) isotopes get locked into a single location. Prior to the rock's formation,
the products of radioactive decays could escape (for instance in the mixing of liquid lava). Once the
rock solidifies, decays happen in situ. By knowing the rate of decay processes, and measuring the
ratio of parent and daughter isotopes, it's possible to place constraints on the age of a rock.
Armed with the technique of radioactive dating, geologists set out to find the oldest rocks on Earth.
These oldest rocks are very rare because, after billions of years, most have been destroyed by the
Earth's active geology. The oldest regions of unaltered crust are in Greenland, Western Australia,
and South Africa, and they are about 3.9 to 4.0 billion years old. In one remarkable discovery from
the Jack Hills region of Western Australia, a small zircon crystal was found with a radiometric age of
4.404 billion years.
Think of it — a mineral smaller than the head of a nail that tells us about billions of years of history!
We have to add to this age an uncertain number representing the time the Earth was molten and the
surface was being heavily bombarded by Solar System debris. An upper bound to the age of the
Earth comes from the most primitive meteorite materials, which are inclusions rich in calcium and
aluminum. This measured age of the Solar System is 4.567 billion years. The best estimate for the
total age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years with an uncertainty of only 1%.
Lunar Olivine Basalt 15555 sample collected from the Moon by the
Apollo 15 mission. It was
formed around 3.3 billion years
ago. On display in the National
Museum of Natural HistorTo
verify this number, scientists
also wanted to date lunar rocks
to see if they were comparable
in age to the Earth. Each Apollo mission brought back a
precious cargo of lunar rocks, soil samples, and drill cores.
Together with some smaller samples brought back by
earlier, unmanned Soviet probes, scientists gathered
several hundred kilograms of rocks from nine different lunar
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sites. Lunar scientists eagerly tested these samples and began to unravel the history of the Moon.
Many of the rocks were in the range of 3 to 4 billion years old, with a few chips dating back to 4.4 or
4.5 billion years ago.
Apparently, most rocks from the first few hundred million years of the Moon's history were pulverized
and destroyed by the intense bombardment that occurred at that time, which is why the earliest rocks
and chips are rare. Scientists add about 100 million years to this age for the time it took the molten
Moon to solidify. The best estimate of the age of the Moon from radiometric dating is 4.527 billion
years, slightly younger than the Earth.
An artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between the Earth
and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon and the large objects that hit the Earth around this
time were part of a random process.
Absolute ages from radiometric dating were used to calibrate the relative ages of different parts of the
lunar surface from crater-counting methods (see related article). Radioactive dating confirmed what
the lunar cratering record indicated: the smooth dark plains, the maria, are considerably younger
than the heavily cratered highlands. Once relative ages from the cratering record were calibrated,
absolute ages could also be found for other planetary surfaces, such as Mercury and Mars by
assuming cratering rates were consistent throughout the inner solar system.
The methods of radiometric dating have been refined over sixty years, and dozens of different
radioactive species can be used for this research. When we apply the radioactive dating technique to
all sorts of Solar System samples — terrestrial rocks, lunar rocks, and meteorites from deep space —
they all yield an age of approximately 4.6 billion years. The technique is based on the well-
understood physics of radioactivity, which can be tested in the laboratory. Scientists consider this
proof of the age of the Earth, and it also led to the chronology of the entire Solar System. Consider
this vast number for a moment. Compared to this, all the generations of humanity are only the blink of
a cosmic eye. We've been around for less than a tenth of one percent of the history of our planet!
A photograph of the full Moon.
By contrast, the neighboring Moon's surface is three to four billion years

old and heavily cratered. Because it's so small, the Moon cooled off more
rapidly, and now it has a relatively dead interior and a thick lithosphere. It
shows fewer signs of surface sculpting from below, and those date from its
early history, when it was still warm inside.
The dominant process that has sculpted the Moon's surface in the last
three billion years comes from outside, not from inside. Eons of asteroids and comets have slammed
into the Moon, creating its characteristic cratered surface. The granular soil the Apollo astronauts
walked on is the result of small meteorites pulverizing the surface. No internal processes exist to
"recycle" the surface. Earth is subject to the same onslaught of asteroids and comets, but
the atmosphere burns up the smaller projectiles before they land. Tectonics, volcanism,
and erosion by wind and rain have obscured most of the remaining cratering record.
Combining studies of rock strata, the fossil record, and radioactive ages, yields a chronology of the
Earth, known as the geological timescale. The layers of the Earth reveal a succession of prehistoric
species, generally from less complex to more complex, with distinct breaks in the fossil record. The
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vast majority of these fossil species are now extinct.
The impact of an interplanetary body 65 million years ago caused one of these breaks,
or mass extinctions. The largest mass extinction was about 250 million years ago, and its cause is
uncertain. The evolution of life on Earth has been punctuated by catastrophes caused by space
debris. The Earth's history doesn't occur in a closed environment but is subject to cosmic influences.
Most of the Earth's environmental changes have occurred slowly, over many millions of years. This
includes the buildup of oxygen in the atmosphere due to the respiration of tiny organisms several
billion years ago. Environmental changes continue, some caused by human activity on a very short
time scale (compared to longer time scales that allow biological evolution to respond). Human activity
has depleted the ozone layer and increased the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, which
may lead to global warming.
This artist's concept shows the

variation and similarities between
three of the five terrestrial planets
in the solar system: the Earth,
Mars and Earth's moon.
Mass explains most of the

difference between the Earth and
the Moon. The Earth is so massive that a lot of energy is released by radioactive decay within the
interior rocks. This heats and liquefies the rock, which then drives the activity of the crust. The Moon
is 80 times less massive, so it has proportionately less energy from radioactive decay. The heat
generated within the Moon is insufficient to melt rocks and drive geological activity.
This simple difference illustrates the fundamental contest between internal and external forces in
determining the surface conditions on planets. In general, a massive planet is more likely to retain a
hot interior, and internal geological forces win the contest to shape the surface. Smaller worlds lose
their heat and have little internal geological activity, so external impacts play the dominant role in
shaping surface features.
Internal Structure of the Earth and Moon
Indirect observing techniques are required to probe the internal

structures of planets. Here on Earth, the deepest holes geologists
have ever drilled only go down ten or twelve kilometers into
the crust, which is a mere pinprick in the 6,400-kilometer radius of
the planet. Despite the famous Jules Verne fantasy, we have no
prospect of ever traveling to the center of the Earth. The crushing
pressure and increasing temperature of the surrounding rocks
would make drilling much farther down than the current record of
12 km extremely difficult. Information about deeper structure
cannot come from drill holes. But we can learn about this
inaccessible region from the study of seismic waves passing
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through the Earth. These waves can be generated by earthquakes, volcanism, or artificial explosions.
Cross section of the whole Earth, showing the complexity of paths

of earthquake waves. The paths curve because the different rock
types found at different depths change the speed at which the
waves travel. Solid lines marked P are compressional waves;
dashed lines marked S are shear waves. S waves do not travel
through the core but may be converted to compressional waves
(marked K) on entering the core (PKP, SKS). Waves may be
reflected at the surface (PP, PPP, SS).
Just as light deflects when it passes through a prism, seismic

waves bend according to the density of the rock they pass through. Just as light slows down when it
travels from air into glass, seismic waves slow down when they enter denser rock. After
an earthquake, scientists around the world compare the strength and arrival time of the seismic
waves (this is why it is so important to solve for the epicenter of earthquakes).
They can use that information to build, one earthquake at a time, a 3-dimensional map of the internal
structure of the planet. Similar, but more limited, experiments have been carried out on the Moon
using seismometers brought by the Apollo astronauts. Since the moon doesn't have as many natural
quakes, these seismic detectors are used primarily to
detect the vibrations generated by purposely crashing
spacecraft onto the moon, and from asteroid impacts.
Diagram of the internal structure of the Earth.
Seismic studies on both the Earth and Moon

provide evidence that the planets, as predicted, increase in
density toward their cores. The variation can be explained
by the process of differentiation, which concentrated more
dense materials at the center of the bodies while they were still molten. Through seismic studies, we
can map the transitions from dense core to overlain mantle of moderate density, to a crust of the
least dense rocks at the surface.
All the diverse features of our familiar geography – mountains, canyons, cliffs, and valleys – are
confined to the slender zone of the Earth's crust. The crust ranges from about 5 km thick under the
oceans to about 30 km thick on the continents. From the top of the highest mountain to the bottom of
the deepest ocean trench is less than 0.1% of the radius of the planet. If constructed on the same
scale, the Earth would be as smooth as a billiard ball.

Earth cross-section showing location of the Mohorovičić discontinuity.
The boundary between the crust and the mantle is marked by a

seismic discontinuity called the Mohorovičić (or Moho) discontinuity.
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This occurs at about 5 to 10 km below the oceanic crust, and about 30 to 60 km below the
continents. At this depth, seismic waves suddenly increase their velocity. This is due to an abrupt
change in density and in chemical composition from the aluminum-rich rocks of the crust to the
magnesium-rich rocks of the mantle. Another discontinuity occurs at a depth of about 70 km, where
the mantle transitions from brittle behavior (lithosphere) to plastic behavior (asthenosphere).
We can tell from the density of the core that it can't be pure iron. About 10% has to be other metals,
probably nickel, and perhaps even some sulfur. The outer part of the core is a cauldron of molten
metal. The inner part is even hotter, but it's under such high
pressure that it remains solid, in spite of the heat. Earth's iron core
has a radius of about 3,500 kilometers, just over half of the planet's
radius.
The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) from the

Apollo 16 mission to the Moon. Each of the five Apollo missions
placed a package like this on the lunar surface. Two of the
instruments on each package were the Passive and Active Seismic
Experiments to measure seismic activity on the Moon.
A schematic of the
interior of the Moon.
While terrestrial data is by far the best data we have in

the solar system, we also have a fair amount of
lunar seismology data. The first lunar seismic detectors
were installed by Apollo astronauts. The instruments
registered some meteorite impacts and a very few
moonquakes, showing the Moon to be much less
geologically active than the Earth. Using the sparse data, scientists found that the interior of the
Moon is essentially the same material as the Earth's mantle, with perhaps a very small iron core. This
makes the mean density of the Moon much lower than Earth's. This was suspected even before the
seismic experiments, based on a simple consideration of the Moon's orbit. If we know the
Earth's mass, the force that keeps the Moon in its orbit tells us the Moon's mass (since the Earth isn't
much much bigger than Moon. This doesn't work to determine the mass of most planets going
around the Sun.). Divide this mass by the volume of the Moon, and you get the mean density. This
density is too low for the Moon to be structured like the Earth, with a large, dense core. The lack of a
metal core is an important clue to how the Moon formed, which is discussed in another article.
Origin of Water on Earth
Earth has a hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
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Our Solar System alone has eight planets and dozens of moons. Yet the only one of these planetary
bodies that is absolutely suitable for life is Earth. You might pause for a moment to wonder what
Earth has that the other bodies don't. There is increasing evidence that some of the other planets
once hosted oceans, but Earth is the only one to maintain significant amounts of water. Scientists
surmise that liquid subsurface oceans are present on Europa. As a result, this moon of Jupiter is now
receiving attention from scientists of many disciplines as a potential habitat for life.
So if Earth is unique because of its ready supply of water, how did the water get there? It turns out
there is no simple answer to this question. The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. The
oldest physical remnants we have obtained from the Earth are crystals of zirconium silicate — or
zircons — which were thought to have formed 4.4 billion years ago. These crystals seem to have
formed in an aqueous environment, but there is a paucity of evidence to help scientists concretely
identify the source of Earth's water. However, there are several
plausible explanations for our oceans.
A diagram of the Earth.
Earth and all of the planets in the Solar System formed at

roughly the same time. As one of four terrestrial planets, Earth
is composed primarily of rocky material. During accretion, the
dusty debris that came together to form Earth would have had
relatively little water due to the high temperatures associated with the close proximity to our host star.
Some scientists believe that a little water could have been incorporated into the rocks and dust that
eventually became our planet. Just how much water is unclear.
Volcanic activity on Earth could have released this water to the atmosphere. It is probable, however,
that water in the early atmosphere would have been broken apart (photodissociated)
by ultraviolet (UV) light, turning water into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen high up in the
atmosphere could have been lost to outer space because it is so light and escapes from Earth's
gravitational attraction easily. Even if the incorporation of water into Earth during accretion was more
favorable than predicted, processes such as photodissociation of water by UV light and subsequent
loss of hydrogen cause us to look for other sources of water.
When we look at our Solar System, we notice that there are large amounts of water in the outer
regions. This water is mostly in the form of ice, but it is still prevalent. Comets are bodies in the
outermost regions of the Solar System that contain large amounts of water. They also have highly
elliptical orbits that frequently bring them into the inner solar system — and sometimes on a path that
will cause them to collide with Earth.
Although we have a general sense of the composition of comets — they are like dirty snowballs that
contain organic matter — we do not yet know for sure their exact makeup. Astronomers have studied
at least four well-known comets: Halley's Comet and Comets Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, and
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. They have noticed one commonality between them. In these comets,
the percentage of deuterium (a form of hydrogen with double the mass of normal hydrogen) is twice
that of what we find in average seawater. It is not yet clear whether or not these comets are
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representative of the types of comets that would have been colliding with early Earth.
Regardless, if Earth had received the majority of its water from comets with similar composition, we
would expect the percentage of deuterium to be similar. We could even accept it if the percentage of
deuterium in our oceans were greater than that of the comets, due to photodissociation and
subsequent loss of deuterium to outer space. Neither of these is the case, so we cannot currently
make any conclusions about the contribution of water by comets. Based on the deuterium
composition of the oceans, scientists have estimated that no more than 10% of the water on Earth
originally came from comet collisions.
Although we have just focused on comets as a possible water bearer for Earth, there are other
planetary bodies to consider. Meteoritic material originating in the asteroid belt could also be
responsible for bringing water to Earth. Objects in the outer part of the asteroid belt are predicted to
contain up to twenty percent water. Jupiter's large mass and gravitational influence could easily have
perturbed the orbits of asteroids in the belt, sending some of them on a one-way trip to Earth.
The composition of asteroids within the belt varies depending on their distance from the Sun, so it is
difficult to estimate exactly how much water could have been contributed to Earth. However,
scientists such as Alessandro Morbidelli have predicted that if asteroids had collided with Earth to
bring it the majority of its water, delivery by comets could have contributed some water, resulting in
more appropriate deuterium to hydrogen ratios in Earth's oceans.
Like so many things in science, the exact origin of water on Earth is still unknown. Yet scientists
continue to make observations, collect data, and analyze information to try and develop a complete
understanding of the natural world. The current best bet is that asteroids delivered most of the
Earth's water within the first 100 million years after it formed.
The Earth-Moon System
We think of ourselves as living on a single planet, but in reality, we

live in a system of two worlds. Our sister world, the Moon, is easily
visible in our sky, and we can see its daily effects on ocean tides.
The relationship between the two bodies was first appreciated in
1968 when humans started to explore the other half of our
system.
The lunar phase depends on the Moon's position in orbit around

the Earth and the Earth's position in orbit around the Sun. This
diagram looks down on Earth from the North. Earth's rotation and
the Moon's orbit are both counter-clockwise here. Sunlight is
coming in from the right, as indicated by the yellow arrows. From
this diagram, we can see, for example, that the Full Moon will
always rise at sunset, but the waning crescent Moon is high overhead around 9:00 AM.
The Moon affects the Earth in several observable ways. Consider the monthly movement of the
Moon around our planet - we see the phases of the Moon cycle daily, as different parts of the Earth-
facing side of the Moon are illuminated by the Sun. Many people superstitiously believe that the
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Moon influences human behavior by some unknown force, causing people to act strangely during a
full Moon. This is the origin of the word lunacy.
However, this has never been convincingly proven. Occasionally, a study claims to find a correlation
between Moon phase and murders or admissions to emergency rooms, but large-scale statistical
studies show the effect are not significant. (Though before artificial lights there was probably some
tendency for more people to be out on full Moon nights, and hence for more interesting events to
happen!)
As Newton discovered, Earth's gravity attracts the Moon toward the Earth and keeps it in orbit around
the Earth. But gravity is a mutually attractive force. So the Moon is attracting the Earth, too. Since the
force of gravity depends on the inverse square of the distance, the side of the Earth facing the Moon
has a stronger force pulling toward the Moon than the opposite side, because it is closer to the Moon.
The two unequal forces cause a net stretching force along the Earth-Moon axis, called a tidal force.
Tidal forces occur any time there is a difference between the gravity on the two sides of a celestial
body caused by the attraction of another body. The actual effect is to stretch the whole planet into a
slightly football-like shape. This elongation of the solid Earth is actually very subtle; it results in a
difference in the radii at the poles and the equator of only about 20 centimeters!
Schematic of the tidal forces of the Moon on the Earth's oceans.
The liquid ocean can move much more freely in response to tidal forces

than the solid rocks inside the Earth. Water flows until it "piles up" in
tidal bulges on each side of the Earth. You may wonder about the fact
that tides occur on both sides of the Earth. Why doesn't the attraction of
gravity just cause the water to pile up on the side closest to the Earth?
Just as the force of gravity is strongest on the side of the Earth facing
the Moon, the force is weakest on the side away from the Moon.
Less gravitational force on the far side means the water is not attracted as strongly, and it moves
away from the center of gravity. Think of a spring as an analogy. When the spring is stretched, the
distance between all parts of the spring increases. In the same way, the tidal stretching force applies
to the oceans on both sides of the Earth. Since there are tides on opposite sides of the Earth, and the
Earth rotates once per day, a given spot on the rotating Earth passes through two high-tide zones in
one day.
If the tug of the Moon were the only thing causing tides, high tides would occur whenever the Moon is
overhead, and then exactly 12 hours later. In fact, three effects complicate ocean tides. First, the
Earth's rotation drags the tidal bulges out of line with the direction of the Moon. Second, coastlines
complicate the flow of water, so that actual high tides occur in a complex rhythmic pattern. Third, the
Sun contributes its own tidal forces.
The Sun is much more massive than the Moon, but it's also a lot farther away. When you calculate
the resulting gravitational forces, the Sun's gravitational force on the Earth is much stronger than the
Moon's gravitational force on the Earth. This is how the Sun keeps the Earth in orbit around it.
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However, because the Moon is so much closer, the differential force caused by the Moon is larger
than the differential force caused by the Sun. So the Moon's tidal force is larger.
The Sun has some tidal force on the Earth, too, but solar tides are only about half as high as lunar
ones. When the Sun and Moon line up (new Moon and full Moon), the tides on Earth are especially
high (spring tides). When they are 90º in opposition, the tides partially cancel each other out, and the
resulting lower tides are called neap tides.
The liquid oceans can move easily to respond to the Moon's influence. But the rocky mass of the
Earth feels the same tidal forces, and it can't alleviate the stress by flowing freely. Land tides put
extra stresses on the brittle rocks of the lithosphere. This can lead to earthquakes. Geologists have
found that earthquakes do not occur randomly over time. There is a slightly higher chance of
earthquakes near full Moon or new Moon when the tidal forces
are largest.
A illustration demonstrating simple synchronous rotation. As

the Moon takes exactly one orbit to rotate once about its axis,
the inhabitants of the planet will never be able to see the
green side of the Moon.
You've probably noticed that the features of the Moon always

appear the same. The Moon actually orbits the Earth in such a
way that the same side always points towards the Earth. This
is because the force of gravity is working both ways; the Moon
is slightly elongated by its own tides, caused by the gravity of
the Earth. Earth's gravity has forced the long axis of the Moon
to face the planet so that the Moon is tidally locked in
synchronous rotation.
Through a complex interplay of gravity, tidal forces are also slowing down the rotation of Earth. At the
same time, the Moon is slowly spiraling further away from Earth. This is yet another example of
the conservation of energy. As the Earth loses rotational kinetic energy by spinning more slowly,
the gravitational potential energy increases as the Moon moves to a larger distance from the Earth.
The total energy in the Earth-Moon system is conserved. If we follow these changes in reverse,
backward in time, we find that the Earth rotated faster. The Moon was closer to the Earth, so it
orbited the Earth in fewer days.
What evidence do we have to support the theory that the spin of the Earth is slowing down? The
Apollo astronauts placed laser reflectors on the Moon in order to measure lunar motions precisely.
These measurements confirm that the Moon is moving very slowly away from the Earth, as predicted.
The distance to the Moon is known with a precision of a few millimeters!
The Moon is spiraling away from the Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters per years. In addition,
paleontologists have studied the daily and monthly growth rings in fossilized coral and other
organisms. The results show that one billion years ago, the Moon took only 23 days to go around the
Earth, and the Earth rotated in only 18 hours! Somewhat controversial fossil data from 2.8 billion
years ago suggest that the lunar month was as short as 17 days. The gradual spindown of the Earth
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means that our days are 23 milliseconds longer every year, giving us all more time to get things
done.
Tidal Forces
If the Sun keeps the Earth in its orbit, why is it the Moon that causes tides? To understand this, we
need to compare the strength of the gravity of the Sun and the Moon on the Earth. The force of
gravity is proportional to the mass of two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them. In this equation there is also a numerical constant, G. We will use the
subscripts S, E, and M to represent the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The force of gravity caused by the
Sun on the Earth is:
FSE = G MS ME / (RSE)2
The force of gravity caused by the Moon on the Earth is:
FME = G MM ME / (RME)2
Some quantities will cancel out when we take the ratio of the Sun's force on the Earth to the Moon's
force, FSE/FME. (In general, when you are doing algebra problems, you should wait until you have
simplified the relations as much as you can before plugging in numbers and solving the equation.)
The ratio of forces is:
FSE / FME = (MS / MM)(RME / RSE)2
Schematic of the tidal forces of the Moon on the Earth's oceans.
Now we can insert the values to get the answer. The masses of the Sun
and Moon are MS = 2.0 × 1030 kilograms and MM = 7.4 × 1022 kilograms.
The distances from the Earth are RSE = 1.5 × 108 kilometers (1
Astronomical Unit or A.U., by definition) and RME = 3.8 × 105 kilometers.
We get the result FSE / FME = 173. So the Sun's attractive force on the
Earth is over a hundred times the size of the Moon's attractive force.
There is no question that the Sun controls the orbit of the Earth. So how can the Moon cause the
tides on the earth? Gravity depends on the inverse square of the distance. So the gravity on the near
side of a large object is larger than the gravity on the far side. The tidal force is a stretching force.
Tides are caused by the difference between the gravity force on one side of an object and the other
side.
We can make a good approximation for the strength of the tidal force by taking the gravity force we
have just calculated and multiplying it by the ratio of the front-to-back distance of the Earth divided by
its distance from the Sun or Moon. (Calculus is needed to derive the result precisely.) Let's call the
Earth's diameter DE. For the stretching of the Sun on the Earth we get:
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DE / RSE = 12,700 / 1.5 × 108 = 8.5 × 10-5
For the stretching of the Moon on the Earth we get:
DE / RME = 12,700 / 384,000 = 0.033
The ratio of these two numbers is 390. The size of the Earth is a much larger fraction of the Earth-
Moon distance than it is of the Earth-Sun distance.
While the Sun has a larger force on the Earth than the Moon, the Moon has a larger stretching force.
Larger by what factor? It is larger by the ratio of 390 to 173 or roughly a factor of two. Even though
the Moon controls the Earth's tides, the Sun is a significant contributor. This is the reason that tides
are more extreme near a Full Moon or a New Moon when the stretching forces due to the Moon and
Sun line up in the same direction.
The tidal force is a universal consequence of gravity. The force that causes our oceans to move
operates elsewhere in the Solar System, and beyond. Even when there is no water to respond to the
force, the solid mass of a planet feels the stress caused by this force. Large objects in close
proximity exert the strongest tidal forces. Since gravity is a long-range force, tides exist on larger
scales in the universe. Galaxies experience tidal forces and their shapes can change as a result. On
all scales, gravity shapes the universe.
Effects of Tidal Forces
The tidal force is a universal consequence of Newton's law of gravity, and we can see its effects
throughout the universe. The same force that causes the Earth's oceans to rise and fall also operates
elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond. Large objects in close proximity exert the strongest tidal
forces, but any time two large objects orbit each other closely, tides are important. This is true of
planets, stars, and even entire galaxies!
The same tidal force that stretches a satellite also tends to slow its rotation until the longest axis of
the satellite lines up with the planet. Just as the Earth's rotation is slowing due to the Moon's tidal
force on it, the Moon's rotation has slowed until it is locked into this position. This is why most
satellites, like the Moon, face toward their planet - they
are "tidally locked" in that orientation. We always see the
same face of the Moon from the Earth because the
Moon's rotation period is the same as the time it takes to
complete one orbit around the Earth.
Another way of saying this is that the Moon is in a 1:1

spin-orbit resonance — the ratio of its rotational (spin)
period to its orbital period is 1 to 1. Examples of this are
common in our Solar System. Pluto and Charon are
tidally locked to each other. Mercury's eccentric orbit
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prevents it from being in a 1:1 spin-orbit resonance. Instead, it's in a 3:2 resonance — in other words,
Mercury's day is two-thirds as long as its year.
If a satellite (or a passing body) comes very close to a planet, the tidal forces can be destructive. The
closer two objects are in space, the stronger the gravity between them, and the stronger the tidal
force. So the closer an object comes to a planet, the more it's stretched. Within a certain distance
called the Roche limit, stretching forces can break it apart. That's why we don't see satellites orbiting
too close to planets — instead, we see ring systems within a certain distance of the planet. These
rings are the remnants of bodies that were broken up by tidal forces.
Even when there's no water to respond to tidal forces, the solid mass of a planet feels the stress
caused by these forces. In fact, tidal forces can heat the interior of a satellite in an elliptical orbit. In
that case, the satellite comes closer to the planet during one part of its orbit and there it's subjected
to strong stretching forces. As it moves away from the planet the stress is partly released and the
body relaxes back toward a more spherical shape.
This continual flexing of the satellite creates heat through internal friction, in the same way, that if you
flex a tennis ball enough times it becomes warm. This effect is called tidal heating. The more elliptical
the orbit, the stronger the tidal heating. Jupiter's large Galilean satellites experience this kind of
heating — enough to produce extensive volcanism on Io and possibly create liquid-water oceans
beneath the surface of Europa.
Lunar Surface
Alan Bean carries the ALSEP to the deployment site.
Robotic and human exploration of the Moon, particularly during the

Apollo era, provided our first views of an alien planetary surface. The
insights gleaned were often as surprising as they were spell-binding.
The surface of the moon is
geologically complex, and it
offers a challenging
environment for geophysicists
to explore through manned space-exploration, robotic
missions, and orbiting space probes.
Today, a host of missions from nations around the world are

gathering data about the lunar surface using cameras that
probe the moon in a variety of different electromagnetic
wavelengths. Together they allow us to determine both the
texture of the lunar surface and its chemical composition.
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This oblique view featuring International Astronomical Union (IAU) Crater 302 on the Moon surface
was photographed by the Apollo 10 astronauts in May of 1969. Note the terraced walls of the crater
and central cone. Center point coordinates are located at 162 degrees, 2 minutes east longitude and
10 degrees, 1 minute south latitude. One of the Apollo 10 astronauts aimed a handheld 70mm
camera at the surface from lunar orbit for a series of pictures in this area.
In broad terms, the moon has two main components: the dark maria that formed from volcanic
activity early in the Moon's history and the light highlands that are the original lunar crust. The maria
rock, like most basaltic minerals, is rich in magnesium and iron, while the highlands are composed of
calcium and aluminum-rich feldspar. Both these regions are peppered with craters
from asteroid and comet impacts. Over time, the smallest of these impacts have pulverized much of
the surface into fine dust and granular material called regolith.
In the diversity of this landscape, geophysicists are discovering a variety of minerals that reflect the
Moon's original cooling and solidification, its volcanic past, as well as more violent mineral formation
processes associated with asteroid and comet impacts.
Ice on the Moon
The Moon is a very dry place. Rocks and soil samples returned by the Apollo mission, admittedly
collected from particularly arid areas, contain no water of hydration (water molecules trapped in the
minerals), which is found in many minerals formed on the wet Earth. Without laboratory
measurements of lunar rock, only secondary evidence could be sought. In 1996, radar equipment on
a small spacecraft orbiting the Moon returned exactly the signals that would be expected from ice
deposits.
They emanated from crater floors at the Moon's south pole, in an area near Aitken Basin. The water
ice was purported to be mixed in with the regolith at low concentrations. The initial results were
controversial, but they were supported in 1998 by a low-cost NASA spacecraft, the Lunar Prospector
orbiter. This second mission inferred the presence of ice deposits near both lunar poles, based on
the amounts of hydrogen gas detected. In 2009, the LCROSS mission dropped an empty Centaur
rocket stage into a polar crater and detected water in the resulting plume of material.
The geography of the lunar pole makes ice and other volatiles possible. In the early 1960s, however,
a few scientists pointed out that craters at the poles of the Moon could be in permanent shadow, and
would, therefore, be extremely cold. These researchers speculated that if water molecules had been
released near the Moon (for example, by impacts of ice-bearing comets over the eons), they could
then be trapped in the cold pockets of these craters. Accumulations of ice would form, hidden in the
permanent shadows.
Because the Moon has no atmosphere, any exposed

water ice would quickly sublime into gas and escape the
weak gravity of the Moon. So for it to survive for long
periods, the ice would have to be buried under the lunar
regolith.
Schematic of the Earth–Moon system (without a

consistent scale). Note the differences in the Earth and
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Moon axial tilts.
Imagine what it would be like to visit one of these craters at the south pole of the Moon. Unlike the
Earth with its 23.5° axial tilt, the Moon’s rotation axis is only tilted by about 7°. This means that if you
stand at the south pole of Moon, the Sun is near the horizon all year long. (As seen from Earth’s
south pole, in contrast, the Sun stays above the horizon 24 hours a day throughout the autumn and
winter and then drops below the horizon for the entire spring and summer.) If you stood in a
depressed crater floor at the Moon’s pole, the crater walls would always hide the Sun, and you would
be in perpetual shadow.
It is now estimated that the soil in some lunar craters is several percent water. Unfortunately, the
water is mixed in with the soil and will not be easily accessible to future astronauts. Nonetheless, this
is exciting news and tells us that the moon still has interesting problems for us to try and solve.
NASA has tested portable processing plants that could extract about a liter of water from a metric
ton of lunar soil (a volume of about one cubic meter). Other processes can extract oxygen from that
same soil, to breathe or to liquefy and use as rocket fuel. A third process could melt the soil and turn
it into slump blocks of building material. So while the Moon appears barren, there is enough there to
support an inhabited base some day.
Humans on the Moon
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), commander of NASA's Apollo

11 mission, descends the ladder of the Apollo Lunar
Module (or Lunar Excursion Module, LEM) to become the
first human to set foot on the surface of the Moon.
Almost forgotten in the more than forty years since we set

foot on the Moon is the fact that NASA then had an
aggressive plan for lunar exploration that would have
culminated in a Moon base by 1980. Over the course of six
Apollo landings, the time spent on the surface was
extended from one to three days, the spacesuits were upgraded to allow moonwalks of up to seven
hours, and the electric-powered rover was added to the mix.
In 1968, as NASA prepared for its first piloted Apollo flight, it formed a working group to study the
idea of a lunar station. After three exploratory missions
to different landing sites, NASA would have sent six or
more missions to a single site as preparation for a
permanent base. The working group began its report
by declaring that a twelve-astronaut International
Scientific Lunar Observatory should be a major goal for
the agency.
An artist's concept of a possible Moon colony. Just a

few kilometers from the Apollo 17 Taurus Littrow
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landing site, a lunar mining facility harvests oxygen from the resource-rich volcanic soil of the eastern
Mare Serenitatis. Here a marketing executive describes the high iron, aluminum, magnesium, and
titanium content in the processed tailings, which could be used as raw material for a lunar metals
production plant. This image produced for NASA by Pat Rawlings, (SAIC). Technical concepts for
NASA's Exploration Office, Johnson Space Center (JSC).
The working group's recommended option was to develop new hardware to form the nucleus of a
future base. A new Lunar Payload Module with a descent stage but no ascent stage would carry
7,000 pounds to the surface. Its heaviest item of cargo would be a one-ton shelter capable of housing
two people for two weeks. It would also deposit two snazzy personal jetpacks for ranging over the
surface and a rover or Moon buggy that could be driven by an astronaut or by flight controllers in
Houston.
The payload would also have included a solar furnace to test the extraction of useful ingredients from
the soil, a one-foot telescope, a bioscience package, and various pieces of lab equipment. NASA’s
advisory group estimated that doing the groundwork for a lunar base would add a billion dollars to the
projected cost of the Apollo program.
It was a great idea but it ran into the buzz saw of political reality. NASA's budget peaked in 1965,
during the white heat of development for the Moon landings, at $5.25 billion, or 5 percent of the
federal budget. President Lyndon Johnson was a staunch NASA supporter, but the cost of the
Vietnam War soared to $25 billion in 1967 and Congress was looking to cut costs. After the euphoria
of Neil Armstrong’s historic step, public interest waned and NASA’s budget went into sharp reverse.
In 2009, the Center for Strategic and International

Studies produced an estimate of the cost of a lunar
base. They assumed that a heavy-lift rocket will exist,
and since at least three countries are likely to have
such a capability, it's a fairly safe assumption.
The project development costs of $35 billion, which is
much cheaper than the $110 billion price of the
International Space Station and, if spread over a
decade, is no more than the costs of flying the Space
Shuttle. Base operating costs are estimated at $7.4
billion per year. Half of the operating costs come from
assuming that no local resources would be available, so four tons of supplies per person per year
would have to be shipped from the Earth to the Moon. The basic requirements per day per astronaut
(assuming water is efficiently recycled) would be 2.5 liters (or 2.5 kg) of water for drinking and adding
to food, 0.8 kg of oxygen, and 1.8 kg of dried food. The other central requirement is energy in the
form of solar power.
Clearly, a lunar base would be more attainable if it could be as self-sufficient as possible. The Moon
was always thought of as a sterile, arid, meteor-blasted rock, so there was much excitement when
orbiters sent back evidence of water in the mid-1990s. A number of craters, such as
Shackleton crater, appeared to have high amounts of hydrogen, possibly suggesting water ice. In
2010, an Indian satellite found ice in the permanently shadowed regions of craters near the Moon’s
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North Pole.
This led to research showing that the Moon contains 600 million tons of ice in nearly pure sheets
several meters thick. The other key ingredient for a lunar base is oxygen to breathe. The lunar soil
or regolith is 40 to 45 percent oxygen by mass; it's fairly simple chemistry to heat it to 2,500 Kelvin
using solar power and unlock it from minerals to generate 100 grams of breathable oxygen for every
kilogram of soil. Water could also be split into oxygen and hydrogen, the main components of rocket
fuel.
Even the material for a habitat could be created locally. Lunar soil is a unique blend of silica and iron-
bearing minerals that can be fused into a glass-like solid using microwaves. Fairly simple technology
can turn the dirt into hard ceramic bricks. The European Space Agency is developing a 3-D printer
that can create wall blocks at three meters per hour, fast enough to build a whole habitat in a week.
The cost of a Moon base shrinks dramatically if air, water, and building materials can be generated
locally. All of the technologies needed to do it have been demonstrated in the lab.
Location, location, location. It's as crucial when buying a home as when planning a Moon base. The
best spots are high mountains on the rims of large craters near the poles. They would be close to
abundant water ice but high enough to be peaks of eternal light, always illuminated by the Sun so
with access to solar energy all the time.
At low latitudes, colonists would have to contend with extreme temperature variations, plus the 354-
hour-long lunar night. But they could make use of one of the tunnels formed long ago when basaltic
lava flowed on the Moon. The lava tubes can be as wide as 300 meters. They maintain a stable
temperature of –20°C as well as provide protection from cosmic rays and meteorites. With the
Chinese planning to build a Moon base by 2025, the U.S. is likely to start making plans to be there
too.
Enrichment 1. Explain why the Moon keeps one side toward Earth.
Activities 2. Why are earthquakes more likely to occur near a new Moon or a full Moon?
3. If Earth and the Moon are nearly identical in age as is believed then why are rocks on Earth
so much younger than rocks on the Moon?
4. Suppose that Earth is smaller and denser but has the same mass and orbit with respect to
the Sun and the Moon. Would the tidal forces on Earth be larger or smaller? Why
Comprehensio Quiz will be given online
n Check
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Ch2 Astro W8 The Earth Moon System

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QUIRINO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Module 1 Earth and Moon

The view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts

Early Estimates of Earth's Age

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A breakthrough occurred in the 1670s, at a time when Newton was at the

He had to make a separate determination of the rate at which sand is

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

The frontispiece from Charles Lyell's Principles of

First, they studied sedimentary layers exposed in canyons in many parts

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Ages of the Earth and Moon

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

A photograph of the full Moon.

By contrast, the neighboring Moon's surface is three to four billion years

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

vast majority of these fossil species are now extinct.

This artist's concept shows the

Mass explains most of the

Internal Structure of the Earth and Moon

Indirect observing techniques are required to probe the internal

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Cross section of the whole Earth, showing the complexity of paths

Just as light deflects when it passes through a prism, seismic

Diagram of the internal structure of the Earth.

Seismic studies on both the Earth and Moon

Earth cross-section showing location of the Mohorovičić discontinuity.

The boundary between the crust and the mantle is marked by a

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) from the

While terrestrial data is by far the best data we have in

Origin of Water on Earth

Earth has a hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

A diagram of the Earth.

Earth and all of the planets in the Solar System formed at

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

The Earth-Moon System

We think of ourselves as living on a single planet, but in reality, we

The lunar phase depends on the Moon's position in orbit around

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Schematic of the tidal forces of the Moon on the Earth's oceans.

The liquid ocean can move much more freely in response to tidal forces

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

A illustration demonstrating simple synchronous rotation. As

You've probably noticed that the features of the Moon always

“Molding Minds, Shaping Future”

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION