By Todd Ratcliff

The Apollo 15 (left) and Apollo 11 (right) lunar laser ranging retroreflector arrays. Image credit: NASA/D. Scott

Everyone knows that Earth’s Moon is a cold, dead chunk of rock, right? Hold on there, Sparky, not so fast! While it’s true that it was once thought that the moon was an inert, lifeless ball, scientists have known since the days of the Apollo astronauts that there’s much more going on inside our moon than meets the eye.

On Earth, seismology is one of the best ways to probe what’s happening inside our planet. We can “see” the layers and boundaries deep inside Earth, similar to how a sonogram lets us see the shape of a baby in a pregnant woman’s belly. Seismology is what lets us know that Earth’s core is divided into a solid inner core and liquid outer core.

So it only made sense for Apollo astronauts to place seismometers on the moon in order to measure the rumblings and grumblings of the lunar interior. Unfortunately, the locations of the moonquakes and positions of the seismometers didn’t allow for a nice “sonogram” of any possible lunar core. Despite almost a decade of measuring moonquakes, we never got a good peek at the core.

Diagram of the moon’s interior structure. Image credit: NASA

Another Apollo experiment left panels of retroreflectors — essentially giant mirrors (about a square meter, or about 11 square feet, in size) — on the moon’s surface. Observatories on Earth fire laser beams at the reflectors and measure how long it takes light to make the round-trip. Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) gives us a remarkably accurate measure of the Earth-moon distance, good to within a couple of centimeters (a little less than an inch). LLR has also let us know that our moon probably isn’t completely solid. The moon most likely has a liquid iron core and possibly, like Earth, a solid iron inner core.

Now lunar scientists have revisited and applied modern seismic analysis techniques to the more than 30-year-old lunar seismic data set. Their analysis supports the idea that the moon does indeed have an inner core of solid iron surrounded by an outer core of liquid iron. Similar to (but very much smaller than) Earth’s core!

If all goes well, the soon-to-be launched GRAIL mission, whose twin orbiters will measure gravity in exacting detail, will shed even more light on the nature of our moon’s interior. Things are getting pretty interesting for this “cold, dead chunk of rock!”

By Dr. David Diner

Tiny airborne particles, or aerosols, can affect the appearance of the moon during a total lunar eclipse, sometimes giving it a reddish hue. Copyright Ian Sharp

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon. Although the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, the lunar disk remains partially illuminated by sunlight that is refracted and scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Refraction is the bending of light that occurs when the rays pass through media of different densities (our atmosphere is more dense near the surface and less dense higher up). Scattering of sunlight by molecules of air also deflects the light into different directions, and this occurs with much greater efficiency at shorter (bluer) wavelengths, which is why the daylight sky appears blue. As we view the sun near sunrise or sunset the light traverses a longer path through the atmosphere than at midday, and when the air is relatively clear, the absence of shorter wavelengths causes the solar disk to appear orange.

Tiny airborne particles, also known as aerosols, also scatter sunlight. The relative efficiency of the scattering at different wavelengths depends on the size and composition of the particles. Pollution and dust in the lower atmosphere tends to subdue the color of the rising or setting sun, whereas fine smoke particles or tiny aerosols lofted to high altitudes during a major volcanic eruption can deepen the color to an intense shade of red.

If you were standing on the Moon’s surface during a lunar eclipse, you would see the Sun setting and rising behind the Earth, and you’d observe the refracted and scattered solar rays as they pass through the atmosphere surrounding our planet. Viewed from the Earth, these rays “fill in” the Earth’s shadow cast upon the lunar surface, imparting the Moon’s disk with a faint orange or reddish glow. Just as we sometimes observe sunrises and sunsets with different shades of orange, pink or red due to the presence of different types of aerosols, the color of the eclipsed lunar disk is also affected by the types of particles that are present in the Earth’s atmosphere at the time the eclipse occurs.

By Sami Asmar

In addition to the awesome views they offer, lunar eclipses have always provided scientific clues about the moon’s shape, location and even surface composition. Although there will continue to be opportunities for observers to examine and reflect on fundamental concepts about the moon, such as its origin and interior structure, more modern tools are aiding these observations.

When it comes to understanding what a moon or a planet is made of remotely — short of touching it or placing seismometers on its surface or probes below the surface — classical physics comes to the rescue. By measuring the magnetic and gravitational forces that are generated on the inside and manifested on the outside of a planet or moon, we can learn volumes about the structure of its interior.

A spacecraft in the proximity of the moon can detect these forces. In the case of gravity, the mass of the moon will pull on the spacecraft due to gravitational attraction. If the spacecraft is transmitting a stable radio signal at the time, its frequency will shift by an amount exactly proportional to the forces pulling on the spacecraft.

This is how we weigh the moon and go further by measuring the detailed distribution of the densities of mountains and valleys as well as features below the moon’s surface. This collection of information is called the gravity field.

In the past, this has lead to the discovery mascons on the moon, or hidden, sub-surface concentrations of mass not obvious in images or topography. If not accounted for, mascons can complicate the navigation of future landed missions. A mission, human or robotic, attempting to land on the moon would need to have a detailed knowledge of the gravity field in order to navigate the landing process safely. If a spacecraft sensed gravitational pull higher than planned, it could jeopardize the mission.

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, scheduled to launch in September, is comprised of twin spacecraft flying in formation with radio links between them to measure the moon’s gravity field globally. This is because a single spacecraft with a link to Earth would be obstructed when the spacecraft goes behind the moon, leaving us with no measurement for nearly half of the moon, since the moon’s far side never faces the Earth. The GRAIL technique may also reveal if the Moon has a core with a fluid layer.

So as you go out to watch the lunar eclipse on the night of Dec. 20, think about how much we’ve learned about the moon so far and what more we can learn through missions like GRAIL. Even at a close distance from Earth, the moon remains a mystery waiting be uncovered.

By Jane Houston Jones

Are you eager to see the annual Perseids meteor shower tonight? You’ll have to wait until near midnight to see it, so why not pass the time by viewing Venus, Saturn and Mars right from your doorstep? Step outside for the planetary warm-up act just as soon as the sun sets. (Viewing times will be best over the next week. By August 20, the planets set lower on the horizon and are harder to see.)

All you have to do is look towards the west for bright Venus to appear. Now hold your clenched fist up to the sky, covering Venus. To the right of Venus, about half of a clenched fist away, is a second planet: That’s Saturn! And to the upper left of Venus is another planet: Mars!

That’s not all you’ll be able to see. Look below Venus for the slender crescent moon. If you don’t see the moon, look again on the night of Friday, August 13 — it will be a larger crescent to the left of Venus.

Though the three planets appear together in our line of sight, they are really far apart from each other. Mars is about 300 million kilometers (about 185 million miles) from Earth, while Venus is 112 million kilometers (about 70 million miles) away. Saturn? It’s 1,535 million kilometers (about 954 million miles) from Earth. And finally, the moon is only 363 thousand kilometers (about 225 thousand miles) away. It’s fun to compare the size of the moon and Mars, especially if you received that annual email incorrectly stating that Mars will be as big as the moon this month.

Jane Houston Jones

Updated Aug. 26, 2010

If you’re like me, you may have received an e-mail this summer telling you to go outside on August 27 and look up in the sky. The e-mail, most likely forwarded to you by a friend or relative, promises that Mars will look as big as the moon on that date and that no one will ever see this view again. Hmmm, it looks like the same e-mail I received last summer and the summer before that, too. In fact this same e-mail has been circulating since 2003, but with a few important omissions from the original announcement.

I’m Jane Jones, an amateur astronomer and outreach specialist for the Cassini mission at Saturn, and I’m here to set the record straight on when and how you can actually see Mars this month.

1. How did the “Mars in August” e-mail get started in the first place?

In 2003, when Mars neared opposition — its closest approach to Earth in its 22-month orbit around the sun — it was less than 56 million kilometers (less than 35 million miles) away. This was the closest it had been in over 50,000 years. The e-mail that circulated back then said that Mars, when viewed through a telescope magnified 75 times, would look as large as the moon does with the unaided eye. Even back in 2003, to the unaided eye, Mars looked like a reddish star in the sky to our eyes, and through a backyard telescope it looked like a small disc with some dark markings and maybe a hint of its polar ice cap. Without magnification, it never looked as large as the moon, even back in 2003!

2. Can the moon and Mars ever look the same size?

No. The moon is one-quarter the size of Earth and is relatively close — only about 384,000 kilometers (about 239, 000 miles) away. On the other hand, Mars is one-half the size of Earth and it orbits the sun 1-1/2 times farther out than Earth’s orbit. The closest it ever gets to Earth is at opposition every 26 months. The last Mars opposition was in January and the next one is in March 2011.

At opposition, Mars will be 101 million kilometers (63 million miles) from Earth, almost twice as far as in 2003. So from that distance, Mars could never look the same as our moon.

3. Is Mars visible in August 2010?

Mars and Saturn made a dramatic trio with brighter Venus this month. Skywatchers enjoyed seeing the three planets closely gathered on the 12th and 13th with the slender crescent moon nearby. On the 27th, you’ll see Venus shining brightly in the west. If you look above Venus, you may find faint Mars. Saturn is barely visible above the horizon, getting ready for its solar conjunction next month.

4. Can I see Mars and the moon at the same time this month?

Both the moon and Mars were next to one another on the 12th and 13th, but now you can see both planets a few hours apart. Look for Mars in the west at sunset, and watch the moon rise in the east a few hours later. On August 26th and 27th you can see the nearly full moon rising in the east at about 10 p.m. The bright planet below the moon on the 26th is Jupiter! On the 27th, the moon is to the left of the planet.

5. Will the “Mars in August” e-mail return next year?

Most certainly! But next year, you’ll be armed with facts, and perhaps you will have looked at the red planet for yourself and will know what to expect. And you will know exactly where to put that email. In the trash!