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Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
By Kiya and Sebastian
When Apollo astronauts brought home samples of moon dust, we found out that it is made mostly of mare basalt (also called Lunar mare) and anorthosite. Some of the samples had a mix of both.
Mare basalt comes from lava and volcanic activity and makes up the dark patches we can see on the moon. Anorthosite is a lighter weight and color rock that makes up the higher mountain like regions of the moon. So how did those two rock types get turned into dust and mixed together?
How is Moon Regolith Created?
How is Moon Regolith Created?
Regolith is the name for the dust and dirt on the surface of another planet or moon. The moon has lots of dust on its surface. That dust has sharp edges and can cause problems with equipment. On Earth, dust is created through erosion by wind and water, but the moon doesn't have an atmosphere to make wind, and there is no flowing water there either. Why do you think moon dust has such sharp edges?
So how is the regolith made? By impacts!
You can make your own lunar regolith at home.
How to Make Regolith
How to Make Regolith
Supplies
A pan with deep sides
Two different types of crackers. For example, original graham crackers, chocolate graham crackers, cinnamon graham crackers, cheesey crackers or saltine crackers.
A rock from the garden about the size of your palm.
A bowl of water.
Instructions
Place two kinds of graham crackers into the bottom on your pan. put them side by side with one half of the pan being one kind of cracker and the other side being the other kind.
Drop your rock randomly on the crackers on both sides multiple times. Keep drop[ping until there are a lot of crumbs.
Do you see the two different kinds of cracker crumbs getting mixed together? Astronauts on the moon found that the dust in many areas was a mix of the dark and light colored rocks that make up the majority of the moon's surface. Asteroids hit into the moon and broke the larger rocks apart into dust. That dust got thrown by the impacts for some distance and settled back to the moon's surface sometime a far distance from the impact. That is how the colors and rock types got mixed.
Now look at the edges of a few of your crumbs. Are they sharp or rounded?
The edges will be sharp because the crumbs were made by breaking or fracturing the crackers. Thew same thing happens with moon dust. It has sharp edges because it was made by fracturing rock because of impacts.
Dust on Earth usually has less sharp edges. Take a dime size piece of your crackers. Hold it between your hand on your palm and them rub your hands back and forth with it in the middle. After rubbing for a few minutes, the crumbs in your hands will be more round like a rocks on earth made by tumbling in the wind or water.
Take another piece of cracker about the size of a quarter. Swirl it in the bowl of water around and around for a few seconds. When you pull it out, the piece will have rounded soggy edges like water running over rocks on Earth.
What you just demonstrated is different kinds of erosion. The moon has impact erosion, but Earth does sometimes too. The Earth was hit by meteors and still is hit once in a while today. Your hands acted like wind erosion and the water acted like water erosion.
Resources: NASA Making Regolith, Is the moon toxic to humans?
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