Due:
1. Go to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Clementine website http://www.nrl.navy.mil/clementine to find information on the Clementine mission. In particular, notice the Water Found on the Moon section (the blue regions on the above Lunar map).
2. How was the possible existence of water on the Moon inferred? Why would the discovery of water on the Moon be interesting? Why is it possible for water exist on the surface of the Moon? Where might the water have come from?
3. Watch the animation http://pages.uoregon.edu/~imamura/121/images/clementine.mpg compiled from images taken during the Clementine mission. The dark regions are referred to as maria and the lighter regions as highlands. Estimate the fraction of the Moon's surface covered by maria and that covered by the highland regions. Which region do you suspect solidified first during the evolution of the Moon? Upon what reasoning is your answer based?
4. Compare the surfaces and surface features of Mercury to those of the Moon. What are their similarities? What are their differences? Find pictures to illustrate your points. (Use net search engines or peruse some of the sites given for this course to look for information on Mercury.)
