The Lunar Surface The moon has no atmosphere. Because an atmosphere moderates temperature, the moon’s average surface temperature has a lot of variation. During the day, the surface temperature averages about 225 degrees F, but it drops to -243 degrees F at night. The coldest temperatures on the moon, at around -397 degrees F, occur in craters in the permanently shaded south polar basin. These are among the coldest temperatures recorded in the entire solar system. The landscape of the moon is unchanging. With no plate tectonics, new surface features are not built. With no... Show more The Lunar Surface The moon has no atmosphere. Because an atmosphere moderates temperature, the moon’s average surface temperature has a lot of variation. During the day, the surface temperature averages about 225 degrees F, but it drops to -243 degrees F at night. The coldest temperatures on the moon, at around -397 degrees F, occur in craters in the permanently shaded south polar basin. These are among the coldest temperatures recorded in the entire solar system. The landscape of the moon is unchanging. With no plate tectonics, new surface features are not built. With no atmosphere, existing surface features are not weathered away. A major type of surface feature on the moon is craters, which are caused by meteorite impacts. Most of these occurred at least a billion years ago, but because there is no weathering, the craters still look as they did when they first formed. Even without a telescope, you can see from Earth that the moon has dark-colored areas and light-colored areas. The dark-colored areas are called maria, and they cover about 16 percent of the moon’s surface, mostly on the near side of the moon. The term maria means “seas,” because people long ago thought the dark areas were seas of water, like those on Earth. However, the maria are not areas of water but areas of flat basaltic rock. From about 3.0 to 3.5 billion years ago the moon was continually bombarded by meteorites. Some of these meteorites were so large that they broke through the moon’s newly formed surface. Then magma flowed out and filled the craters, forming the basaltic maria. Scientists estimate that this activity ceased about 1.2 billion years ago. The light-colored parts of the moon are called terrae, or highlands. Terrae have higher elevations than maria and include several high mountain ranges. Terrae consist of light silicate minerals that precipitated out of the ancient magma ocean and formed the early lunar crust. There are no lakes, rivers, or even small puddles of liquid water anywhere on the moon’s surface. However, this doesn’t mean that the moon lacks water. Frozen water has been found in the extremely cold craters of the moon and also bound up in the lunar soil. Show less
The Lunar Surface The moon has no atmosphere. Because an atmosphere moderates temperature, the moon’s average surface temperature has a lot of variation. During the day, the surface temperature averages about 225 degrees F, but it drops to -243 degrees F at night. The coldest temperatures on the moon, at around -397 degrees F, occur in craters in the permanently shaded south polar basin. These are among the coldest temperatures recorded in the entire solar system. The landscape of the moon is unchanging. With no plate tectonics, new surface features are not built. With no atmosphere, existing surface features are not weathered away. A major type of surface feature on the moon is craters, which are caused by meteorite impacts. Most of these occurred at least a billion years ago, but because there is no weathering, the craters still look as they did when they first formed. Even without a telescope, you can see from Earth that the moon has dark-colored areas and light-colored areas. The dark-colored areas are called maria, and they cover about 16 percent of the moon’s surface, mostly on the near side of the moon. The term maria means “seas,” because people long ago thought the dark areas were seas of water, like those on Earth. However, the maria are not areas of water but areas of flat basaltic rock. From about 3.0 to 3.5 billion years ago the moon was continually bombarded by meteorites. Some of these meteorites were so large that they broke through the moon’s newly formed surface. Then magma flowed out and filled the craters, forming the basaltic maria. Scientists estimate that this activity ceased about 1.2 billion years ago. The light-colored parts of the moon are called terrae, or highlands. Terrae have higher elevations than maria and include several high mountain ranges. Terrae consist of light silicate minerals that precipitated out of the ancient magma ocean and formed the early lunar crust. There are no lakes, rivers, or even small puddles of liquid water anywhere on the moon’s surface. However, this doesn’t mean that the moon lacks water. Frozen water has been found in the extremely cold craters of the moon and also bound up in the lunar soil.
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