Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Find The Distance To The Moon, Dean Smith

AI Assignment Library

This assignment leads students through a series of measurements that lead the student to calculate the distance to the Moon. Students who complete this assignment will see how knowledge that they would normally look up is gathered through experiment and observation.

What Is A Polygonal Impact Crater? A Proposed Framework Toward Quantifying Crater Shapes, Stuart J. Robbins, Jamie D. Riggs

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Impact craters are used for a wide array of investigations of planetary surfaces. A crater form that is somewhat rare, forming only ∼10% of impact craters, is the polygonal impact crater (or PIC). These craters have been visually, manually identified as having at least two rim segments that are best represented as straight lines. Such straight lines or edges are most often used to infer details about the subsurface crust where faults control the structure of the crater cavity as it formed. The PIC literature is scant, but almost exclusively these craters are identified manually, and the potentially straight edges …

The Extent, Nature, And Origin Of K And Rb Depletions And Isotopic Fractionations In Earth, The Moon, And Other Planetary Bodies, Nicolas Dauphas, Nicole X. Nie, Marc Blanchard, Zhe J. Zhang, Hao Zeng, Justin Y. Hu, Merlin Meheut, Channon Visscher, Robin Canup, Timo Hopp

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Moderately volatile elements (MVEs) are depleted and isotopically fractionated in the Moon relative to Earth. To understand how the composition of the Moon was established, we calculate the equilibrium and kinetic isotopic fractionation factors associated with evaporation and condensation processes. We also reassess the levels of depletions of K and Rb in planetary bodies. Highly incompatible element ratios are often assumed to be minimally affected by magmatic processes, but we show that this view is not fully warranted, and we develop approaches to mitigate this issue. The K/U weight ratios of Earth and the Moon are estimated to be 9704 …

The Meaning Of Dark, Light And Shadows: Inferences In Art, Materiality And Cultural Practices, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Our visual awareness relies on light acting on the eye to perceive materiality and colour. Medieval thought wrestled to articulate and comprehend its nature. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, included his descriptions to define light and make comparisons so as to differentiate between light and shadow. His focus was on the illumination of surfaces from the perspective of a painter, seeing shadows as ‘the diminution of light by the intervention of an opaque body’ and ‘the counterpart of luminous rays’. In his mind, a shadow ‘stood between light and darkness’, with darkness being ‘the absence of light’. …

Concentrated Lunar Resources: Imminent Implications For Governance And Justice, Martin Elvis, Alanna Krolikowski, Tony Milligan

History and Political Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Numerous missions planned for the next decade are likely to target a handful of small sites of interest on the Moon's surface, creating risks of crowding and interference at these locations. The Moon presents finite and scarce areas with rare topography or concentrations of resources of special value. Locations of interest to science, notably for astronomy, include the Peaks of Eternal Light, the coldest of the cold traps and smooth areas on the far side. Regions richest in physical resources could also be uniquely suited to settlement and commerce. Such sites of interest are both few and small. Typically, there …

Design And Construction Of A Computer Controlled Astronomical Spectropolarimeter, Jacob Marchio

Honors College

A theoretical description of a simple optical train, modulated signal based spectropolarimeter is discussed. The design includes, after the telescope optical tube (in this case, a 9.25” Schmidt Cassegrain), a rotating quarter waveplate (compensator), a fixed linear polarizer (analyzer), and transmission grating of 100l/mm, with a ZWO ASI290mm astronomical camera. The practical constraints on implementing such an instrument are discussed, and the construction of the spectropolarimeter is detailed, including the necessary optics, optomechanics, and electromechanics. The rotation and recording of the rotating compensator is facilitated by a motorized connection with proportional feedback control, and the uncertainty in measuring the angle …

Just A Bit Of Physics Can Tell So Much: A Unique Story Of The Start Of The Earth-Moon System, Fred J. Cadieu

Publications and Research

The start of the Earth-Moon system has been studied to show that this was an exceptionally violent event. One result was that Earth became the terrestrial planet with the highest average density. Another result was that Earth acquired enough mass and radioactive elements that it is expected to maintain a molten core region and magnetic field for the expected life of the Earth. Earth alone of the terrestrial planets was then able to develop plate tectonics as a long term energy release mechanism. The dipole magnetic field of the Sun reverses periodically, currently at the rate of about every 11 …

The Undeniable Attraction Of Lunar Swirls, Dany Waller

Posters-at-the-Capitol Presentations

Lunar swirls are complex patterns on the Moon with distinct brightness signatures and magnetic characteristics. Current research has suggested that the formation of lunar swirls relies on local magnetic fields to shield impinging solar wind, based on a shift in electromagnetic wavelength peaks related to solar radiation and space weathering. Our research combined recent models and methods to characterize these anomalies at the surface of the Moon, exploring the effects of field strength and position. We have produced a high resolution map of a famous swirl named Reiner Gamma using magnetic dipole modeling. These maps and models are considered when …

Gravity's Light In The Shadow Of The Moon, Andri Gretarsson, Preston Jones, Douglas Singleton

Publications

In this essay we look at the possibility of vacuum production of very low frequency electromagnetic radiation from a gravitational wave background (i.e. gravity's light). We also propose that this counterpart electromagnetic radiation should be detectable by a lunar orbiting satellite which is periodically occulted by the Moon (i.e., in the shadow of the Moon). For concreteness we consider the possibility of detection of both the gravitational wave and hypothesized electromagnetic radiation counterpart from the supernova core collapse of Betelgeuse

Lunar Stories: The Violence Of Creation, Channon Visscher

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Tales of the moon’s creation abound in myth, legend, history and science. Given its conspicuous brightness and nearness, we should not be surprised that the moon has captured the imagination since the dawn of human consciousness."

Posting about how the moon was made ­­­­­­­­from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/lunar-stories-the-violence-of-creation/

Chemistry Of The Protolunar Disk And Volatile Depletion Of The Moon, Channon Visscher, Robin M. Canup, Julien Salmon, Bruce Fegley Jr.

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

In the giant impact theory for lunar origin, the Moon forms from a circumterrestrial disk of silicate debris produced by the collision of a planetary-sized impactor with the early Earth. Recent accretion models suggest that the final 10-60% of the lunar mass may be provided by the accretion of melt material spreading outward from the inner (Roche-interior) disk over the first ~102 years following the giant impact. The chemical and thermal evolution of the inner disk material is thus expected to strongly influence the bulk chemical composition of the Moon.

In a previous study we explored the chemistry of the …

Protolunar Disk Evolution And The Depletion Of Volatile Elements In The Moon, Robin M. Canup, Channon Visscher, Julien Salmon, Bruce Fegley Jr.

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

We explore how the evolution of the protolunar disk could lead to a depletion in K, Na, and Zn in the Moon relative to Earth even in the absence of escape.

Chemistry Of Impact-Generated Silicate Melt-Vapor Debris Disks, Channon Visscher, Bruce Fegley Jr.

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

In the giant impact theory for lunar origin, the Moon forms from material ejected by the impact into an Earth-orbiting disk. Here we report the initial results from a silicate melt-vapor equilibrium chemistry model for such impact-generated planetary debris disks. In order to simulate the chemical behavior of a two-phase (melt+vapor) disk, we calculate the temperature-dependent pressure and chemical composition of vapor in equilibrium with molten silicate from 2000 to 4000 K. We consider the elements O, Na, K, Fe, Si, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, and Zn for a range of bulk silicate compositions (Earth, Moon, Mars, eucrite parent body, …

Sodium Atoms In The Lunar Exotail: Observed Velocity And Spatial Distributions, Michael R. Line, E. J. Mierkiewicz, R. J. Oliversen, J. K. Wilson, L. M. Haffner, F. L. Roesler

Physical Sciences - Daytona Beach

The lunar sodium tail extends long distances due to radiation pressure on sodium atoms in the lunar exosphere. Our earlier observations measured the average radial velocity of sodium atoms moving down the lunar tail beyond Earth (i.e., near the anti-lunar point) to be ∼12.5. km/s. Here we use the Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper to obtain the first kinematically resolved maps of the intensity and velocity distribution of this emission over a 15° × 15 ° region on the sky near the anti-lunar point. We present both spatially and spectrally resolved observations obtained over four nights bracketing new Moon in October 2007. …

Radial Velocity Observations Of The Extended Lunar Sodium Tail, E. J. Mierkiewicz, M. Line, F. L. Roesler, R. J. Oliversen

Physical Sciences - Daytona Beach

We report the first velocity resolved sodium 5889.950 Å line profile observations of the lunar sodium tail observed in the anti-lunar direction near new Moon. These observations were made on 29 March 2006, 27 April 2006 and 28 April 2006 from Pine Bluff (WI) observatory with a double etalon Fabry-Perot spectrometer at a resolving power of ∼80,000. The observations were made within 2–14 hours from new Moon, pointing near the anti-lunar point. The average observed radial velocity of the lunar sodium tail in the vicinity of the anti-lunar point for the three nights reported was 12.4 km s⁻¹ (from …