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Man in the Moon is four billion years old
Paris (AFP) Dec 5, 2007 The plains of solidified lava that give the Moon its quirky human-like face as seen from Earth were created more than four billion years ago, according to a paper appearing on Thursday in Nature, the British science weekly. The evidence comes from an unearthly silvery-grey stone that was blasted off from the face of the Moon, perhaps by an impacting asteroid, and was then captured by Earth's gravity, prompting it to fall to ground in Botswana. In 1999, the 13.5-kilo (29.7-pound) remnant of this roving rock was found by local people near the village of Kuke, in the grasslands of the Kalahari Nature Reserve, who then sold it to meteorite hunters. The lunar heritage of the rock, named Kalahari 009, has been confirmed by a telltale signature of oxygen isotopes and ratio of iron to manganese in two volcanic minerals, olivine and pyroxene. The nature of these chemicals puts the rock into the category of a mare basalt -- a lava that flowed out smoothly onto the lunar surface before solidifying, forming dark plains that early skywatchers mistakenly took for seas, "Mare" in Latin. A new analysis of fragments of phosphate in Kalahari 009 puts the rocks at the whopping old age of 4.35 billion years, give or take 150 million years, the Nature study says. This implies that mare-type volcanism must have occurred at least as early as this date, just after the first stage of lunar crust formation, say the authors, led by Kentaro Terada of Hiroshima University in Japan and Mahesh Anand of Britain's Open University. Mare volcanism overlapped with a later stage of volcanism, evidence of which was found in rocks picked up by the Apollo missions. The "Man in the Moon" comprises eyes made of the Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, a nose consisting of Sinus Aestuum, while the Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum provide its mouth. These and other mare account for nearly a sixth of the lunar surface, mostly on the side visible from Earth. Related Links Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
China Will Soon Have Its Own Moon Globe
Beijing (XNA) Dec 05, 2007China will make its own lunar globe soon, using pictures and data collected by its own moon orbiter, said an official in charge of the country's moon exploration mission on Tuesday. "I believe that China will soon come up with a full map of the moon," said Hu Hao, head of the lunar exploration center under the Commission of Science Technology and Industry of National Defense (COSTIND). |
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