What are the darker patches on the Moon?

What are the darker patches on the Moon?

The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’. Prof Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at the Museum, works with rock samples and high-resolution images to study the history and geology of the Moon.

What can you conclude about the dark patches on the Moon’s surface?

These dark spots were called as craters,Craters on the Moon are caused by asteroids and meteorites colliding with the lunar surface. The Moon’s surface is covered with thousands of craters. …

What causes the dark part of the Moon?

However, there are some parts of the Moon that never see sunlight. These areas are called permanently shadowed regions, and they appear dark because unlike on the Earth, the axis of the Moon is nearly perpendicular to the direction of the sun’s light.

What do we know about the dark side of the Moon?

People in the past thought that the moon had a black side that was always there. Of course, we know that both the moon and the Earth orbit the sun. The “dark” side is only an optical illusion. The moon’s other side was visible to the Apollo astronauts, who also took advantage of the sunlight.

What is the dark side of the moon called?

The other face, most of which is never visible from the Earth, is therefore called the “far side of the Moon”. Over time, some crescent-shaped edges of the far side can be seen due to libration. In total, 59 percent of the Moon’s surface is visible from Earth at one time or another.

What are the dark patches on the Sun?

Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the Sun. They appear dark because they are cooler than other parts of the Sun’s surface. Solar flares are a sudden explosion of energy caused by tangling, crossing or reorganizing of magnetic field lines near sunspots.

What do you know about the surface of the Moon describe it class 8?

The moon’s surface is covered by rocks and loose dirt which we call lunar soil. It is pockmarked with craters of different sizes because of meteorites that hit its surface. On earth, these meteorites burn up in our atmosphere before they reach the ground.

Why can’t we see the dark side of the moon?

“The moon does rotate, but it rotates at the same speed that it rotates around the Earth.” The moon completes one full rotation on its axis in the time it takes to orbit the Earth. That means the same side is always turned toward us.

What can you say about the surface of the Moon?

The surface of the moon The moon’s surface is covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters, and lava flows, some visible to the unaided stargazer. Early scientists thought the dark stretches of the moon might be oceans, and so named such features mare, which is Latin for “seas” (maria when there are more than one).

Have we ever seen the dark side of the moon?

Although the Moon is spherical like the Earth, we only see one side of it from down here. For most of human history, no one had ever seen the so-called “dark side of the Moon,” the hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

How big are the dark spots on the Moon?

Scientists analyzed Oceanus Procellarum, or the Ocean of Storms, a dark spot on the near side of the moon more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) wide.

Why is the dark side of the moon so smooth?

While the near side is splotched with smooth dark plains caused by ancient lava flows, the far side is pockmarked with craters. Later missions revealed that the geochemical makeup of the two sides was different, too.

Why are parts of the Moon darker than others?

The ‘dark side’ of the Moon refers to the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from the Earth. In reality it is no darker than any other part of the Moon’s surface as sunlight does in fact fall equally on all sides of the Moon.

What is the dark GREY on the Moon?

That gray color you see comes from the surface of the Moon which is mostly oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium and aluminum. The lighter color rocks are usually plagioclase feldspar, while the darker rocks are pyroxene.

What are the spots on the Moon from?

These gray patches are solidified volcanic lava flows. In the Moon’s youth, its interior was still molten, and magma would erupt onto its surface. These dark areas formed when massive asteroid or meteorite impacts on the Moon’s surface created basins.

What material are the dark spots on the Moon made from?

The Maria are mostly composed of dark basalts, which form from rapid cooling of molten rock from massive lava flows. The Highlands rocks are largely Anorthosite, which is a kind of igneous rock that forms when lava cools more slowly than in the case of basalts.