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Nasa picture of the day archives7/3/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The nature of this collision has been highly debated. Korenaga: I’m involved in revealing the conditions surrounding the origin of the moon.Īs I mentioned earlier, it is generally believed that the moon was formed by a gigantic collision between the proto-Earth and a huge impactor, as large as Mars or perhaps even larger. It is the oldest and largest impact basin on the moon and will provide data on the moon’s first 500 million years, which is not particularly well understood. Our new project will explore the approximately 2,500-kilometer-wide, south pole basin. Korenaga: The Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s collected extensive data, but they focused on the near side of the moon, which helps us understand the moon’s current composition and its history for 4 billion years. What data can CLOE and Artemis provide that we did not get from previous moon missions? By accurately interpreting the lunar crater record, we not only obtain the fundamental calibration needed to estimate the ages of cratered terrains across the solar system, but we also gain insights into the environment of the early Earth - an environment that has been erased by our planet’s active geology. Critical data needed to resolve these issues is encoded in the moon’s record of ancient impact craters and basins. But the timing and nature of this dramatic process remains uncertain. Korenaga: It is now appreciated that the planets in our inner solar system - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars - were strongly affected by the orbital migration of the giant planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn. What sort of clues would you be looking for? ![]() It is thought that the moon formed via a gigantic collision with Earth at the end of Earth’s formation, and the clues needed to unravel the nature of this event are still on the moon. The moon thus has a tremendous potential to provide fundamental advances in our understanding of the origin and early evolution of the solar system. Jun Korenaga: The moon preserves the record of ancient conditions and events, and it is also accessible for human exploration. What makes the moon advantageous as a site for further study? In an interview with Yale News, Korenaga, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, describes his role in CLOE, what we still don’t know about the formation and early evolution of the moon - and why a new understanding of these mysteries is important. Led by the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, the project will coordinate its efforts with ongoing NASA lunar science missions such as Artemis, which is expected to send humans back to the Moon later in this decade, and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative, which will deliver needed technology and equipment to the moon. institutions and international collaborators that will work with CLOE. Korenaga, whose research focuses on how Earth evolved to support life, is part of a team that includes 18 scientists from seven U.S. On May 11, NASA announced funding for five lunar science and lunar sample analysis research projects - including $7.5 million for CLOE - as part of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). The ambitious project, known as the Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution (CLOE), will conduct basic research in support of future human and robotic exploration of the far side of the moon. ![]() Over the next five years, Yale geophysicist Jun Korenaga will be part of a scientific project funded by NASA to study the origin and early development of the Earth’s moon. ![]()
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