This is the third book in the series that included 'The Theory of Nothing' the "The Universe Revealed.' My purpose in this new book is to more fully explain how science is actually done and how science fits into our culture along with religion and p...
As most of you know, the Earth's moon is a desolate dry rocky object with no atmosphere. However, there was a time when the moon had an atmosphere.
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Currently, there is very little left of the moon's atmosphere. Most of the gases have been ablated off by the solar wind, but there are traces of it in dark, frozen shaded craters and trapped in deposits. For the most part, the moon has no appreciable atmosphere.
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But, this thin atmosphere is detectable even though it consists of only 100 molecules per cubic centimeter. Besides carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen, astronomers have found carbon monoxide, methane, argone-40 and helium-4. Small amounts or radon and radioactive isotopes of potassium indicate that this thin atmosphere comes from out gassing from the moon's interior from radioactive decay. Some of this may come from occasional moonquakes. Since the moon's gravity is low, most of these evaporate into space, but it indicates that the thin atmosphere is being constantly replenished.
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However, about 3.5 billion years ago, the moon did have an atmosphere. The evidence for this is the planes, or mares, that exist from violent volcanic action. This volcanic action resulted from the horrendous and persistent bombardment period that extended from 4.1 to 3.8 billion years. During this period of the Late Great Bombardment, the moon and the Earth were peppered with tremendous rains of asteroids that literally turned the surfaces of both objects into hot lava oceans. The evidence for this is written in the craggy, cratered surface of the moon. The Earth's scars have been erased by eons of weather.
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The moon's subsequent atmosphere was the result of the volcanic action that produced the mares. These volcanoes spewed out copious amounts of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, and this atmosphere lasted for about 70 million years before the solar wind ablated it into space.
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However, even at its maximum some 3.5 billion years ago, the moon's atmosphere would have been one-hundredth the pressure of Earth's present atmosphere. This is because of the much lower gravity of the moon.
The Apollo missions to the moon brought back plenty of rocks that held the clue to the composition of the primordial moon's atmosphere. What they found was carbon monoxide, hydrogen, sulfur and other gases, gases associated with volcanic eruptions.
It only goes to prove that nothing is absolute, even space itself.
