The Geography of the Moon

Formation

The Moon is Earth's one and only moon. No one knows exactly how it was formed, but there are different theories for it. The main theory, the "Giant Impact Hypothesis" was that a planet of a similar size to Mars known as Theia crashed into Earth. Theia's core was destroyed, and the gravity attracted the particles together to form a Moon.

Characteristics

      Structure

The Moon has a very similar internal structure to the Earth, as well as having a layer between the Mantle and the Outer Core known as the "Partial melt". This area is partly molten and partly solid. Its inner core is 400 kilometres in diameter and contains mainly iron, but it could also contain sulphur. The Outer Core and Partial melt as mentioned before are semi-solid and are 500 kilometres in diameter. The mantle is over 1300 kilometres in diameter and contains metals such as magnesium and iron. Finally, the crust is 70 kilometres deep.

 

         Atmosphere

The Moon's atmosphere is extremely weak. According to Space.com, the Moon has approximately 100 molecules per cubic centimetre in comparison to the Earth which has 100 billion billion   molecules per cubic centimetre. Some of the gases in its atmosphere include potassium and sodium.

Life?

Possible, though unlikely. It is very close to the Earth, three days of Space travel would get us there, However, its thin atmosphere would be impossible for us to live in and it would take years to terraform it. It is also barren and lacking in resources, which would make it somewhat useless to live on.

Sources used: Wikipedia.com, Space.com, airandspace.si.edu, nasa.gov
Images used: http://www.shawacademy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Photograph-the-Moon.jpg, http://hildaandtrojanasteroids.net/TA068mooninterior.jpg