Keep it Simple!

An image of the moon taken by Apollo 10 astronauts. Image courtesy of NASA.

For those of you that are having a little trouble following all of the big words and how complicated I might be, this post is for you!!

The Earth's one natural satellite, ME, is more than one quarter the size of Earth itself (3,474 km diameter). Because of its smaller size, my gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's gravity!

While there are only two basic types of regions on my surface, there are many interesting surface features such as craters, mountain ranges, and lava plains.

The structure of my interior is more difficult to study. The Moon's top layer is a rocky solid, perhaps 800 km thick. Beneath this layer is a partially molten zone. Although it is not know for sure I may have a small iron core, even though I have no magnetic field.

By studying my surface and interior, geologists can learn about my history an formation.

The footprints left by Apollo astronauts will last for centuries because there is no wind on me!

The Moon does not possess any atmosphere, so there is no weather as we are used to on Earth. Because there is no atmosphere to trap heat, the temperatures here are extreme, ranging from 100° C at noon to -173° C at night!!

I do not produce its own light, but I look bright because I reflect light from the Sun. Think of the beautiful Sun as a light bulb, and me as a mirror, reflecting light from the light bulb. My 'lunar' phase changes as I orbit the Earth and different portions of its surface are illuminated by the Sun.

Hope this helps!

Magnetic Field

Sooo to continue to ramble on more about myself, I thought you should know about my magnetic field!

I have an external magnetic field, it is very weak in comparison to that of the Earth. Other major differences are that the I do not currently have a diploar magnetic field (as would be generated by a geodynamo in its core) and the varying magnetization that is present is almost entirely crustal in origin.

Roughly once every Lunar orbit, I pass through Earth's magnetotail for approximately 6 days. Interaction with the plasma sheet cause my surface to become negatively charged. On my dayside this effect is counteracted to a degree by sunlight: ultraviolet photons knock electrons back off the surface, keeping the build-up of charge at relatively low levels. But on the nightside electrons accumulate and surface voltages can climb to hundreds or thousands of volts. There's growing evidence that fine particles of moondust might actually float, ejected from the lunar surface by electrostatic repulsion. This could create a temporary nighttime "atmosphere" of dust. The moondust atmosphere might also gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside. This "dust storm" effect would be strongest at the Moon's terminator.

Although this may look to be confusion upon first glance, I found this really coold website from NASA that explains about my magnetic field quite a bit better with visuals:

Please visit this website, as I want you to be sure you understand about my magnetic field!-

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/magnetotail_080416.html

What am I made of?

Cheese?
Nope... sorry!

I am a 'differentiated body' composed of a distinct crust, mantle and core! My structure is believe to have resulted from the fraction crystallization of magma ocean shortly after my formation around 4.4 billion years ago!

My crust, in terms of elements is composed primarily of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum and is estimated to be about 50 km thick.

I have the density of 3346.4 kg/m cubed, making me the second densest moon in the Solar system, after my dear 'moon' friend Io.

My core is small, with a radius of only about 350km or less. This is therefore only 20% of me! As you can see, I am very different from other terrestrial bodies as their composition of core is around 50% of their make up.

Analysis of my time-variable rotation indicate that my core is at least partly molten.