• Question: What is the moon made of ?

    Asked by anon-226933 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 19 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      The average composition of the lunar surface by weight is roughly 43 percent oxygen, 20 percent silicon, 19 percent magnesium, 10 percent iron, 3 percent calcium, 3 percent aluminum, 0.42 percent chromium, 0.18 percent titanium and 0.12 percent manganese.
      Once I was doing an internship in Bordeaux and my supervisor had a fragment of the moon on his desk because he was asked to analyse the elemental composition. I was so excited when he asked me if I wanted to touch the rock. It is not every day that you can touch a fragment of the moon…

    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Mostly rock. The prevailing theory is that it’s a small piece of the earth which got dislodged by a comet, which means it probably has a very similar composition to the earth!

    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 20 Nov 2019:

      As much as I’d like to say that its made of cheese… I have to agree with the other scientists – it’s just a big rock caught in the gravitational pull of the earth.

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