Lunar Lore Trivia Quiz

Answer: Impact theory

Until 1984 there were different contested hypotheses about the origin of the Moon, until the impact theory prevailed, because it reconciles most of the available facts.

It posits that, roughly 4.5 billion years ago, the young Earth had no Moon, when a rogue planet, about the size of Mars, hit it, vaporizing most of itself and a chunk of the Earth.

Solid particles orbiting the Earth aggregated, eventually forming the Moon.
Fission theory (championed by George Darwin, son of Charles)suggested that the Moon split off from proto-Earth when still in liquid state.

Capture theory stated that the Moon was formed independently and was later captured by Earth's gravity.

Coaccretion theory says that the Moon and Earth were formed together out of the same material.

Answer: They would be lower

The Earth would still have tides even without the Moon, due to the gravitational pull of the Sun, but they would be only about one third of the height of the tides we are used to.

Answer: Faster

Without the gravitational pull of the Moon, the Earth would have shorter days (about only six hours long), much higher winds and lower tides.

Also, due to the higher winds, the vegetation would look completely different, and the mountains, being eroded, would not be as high.

Answer: Black

The sky always looks black on the Moon because its negligible atmosphere is different from the one on our Earth.

There, the light from the Sun does not pass through the molecules that make our sky appear blue.

Answer: It is reflected from the Sun

The Moon emits no light of its own and only reflects back to us the light it receives from the Sun.

Without the Moon, our nights would be always completely dark.

Answer: Eugene Shoemaker

Shoemaker discovered a comet, with his wife Carolyn and David Levy, which was named the Shoemaker-Levy-9 comet.

His greatest wish had been to be the first geologist on the Moon, but sadly it was not to be, since he suffered from Addison disease.

In 1997 he died in a car accident in Australia because, due to his American habit, he veered to the right to avoid a car coming from the opposite direction on a narrow country road, and crashed head on.

In 1999 some of his ashes were delivered in a capsule to the Moon by the Lunar Prospector space probe.

Answer: Theia

The rogue asteroid that struck the Earth is sometimes called Theia, after the Titan that was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.

Astarte is the semitic goddess of love and war.

Sekhmet is the Egyptian goddess of war and destruction.

Answer: Dave Scott

Dave Scott, the commander of the Apollo 15 mission, stood on the Moon, holding a feather in his right hand and a hammer in his left.

When he dropped them, they fell at an identical rate, even though the hammer was about 50 times heavier than the feather.

He proved that, in the absence of air resistance, gravity causes all objects to fall at the same rate, as Galileo had theorized.

Answer: Moon dust

Regolith, from the Greek rhegos (blanket) and lithos (rock), is a compound of parts of broken rock, dust and soil, that can be found also here on Earth, and even on Mars and other planets. Regolith covers almost all of the lunar surface.

The famous Apollo 11 astronaut boot print on the regolith on the surface of the Moon will remain there forever, due to the absence of wind.

Answer: Imbrium

Mare is the latin word for sea, with the plural being Maria.

The Maria are not seas, but depressions or craters caused by impacts, which filled with lava.

They were misnamed in the past as they looked dark to early astronomers and were thought to be bodies of water, but the name stuck.

Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis are the eyes of the face of the "man in the Moon", while Mare Nubium is his mouth.