Transcript •Taylor Runyon •Mickayla Walters •Sarah Compton •Staci Coleman •Brianna Sullivan Our purpose of doing this project is to understand morphology and the composition of the.

•Taylor Runyon
•Mickayla Walters
•Sarah Compton
•Staci Coleman
•Brianna Sullivan
Our purpose of doing this project is to understand
morphology and the composition of the Tycho Crater and
add to our knowledge of the moon.
It’s important to understand the morphology and composition of
the moon’s craters so we know how our planets and other aspects
of the universe came to be.
During this power point presentation, we are going to
explain our examinations of LROC NAC simple craters.
Aspects included in the presentation are
•Diameter
•Depth
•Diameter/Depth
•Slope of crater wall
We are also going to describe the crater’s wall and
answer the questions below
• Does the craters have boulders?
•If so, what are the boulder’s size?
•Can something be said about the regolith based on
boulder size and trail behind the boulder?
During this power point we are also going to describe the
crater floor, including
•Impact Melt
•Flat
•Boulders
•Size of boulders
We are also going to identify whether the craters are located
on mare or highlands.
After
Before
Diameter- red
Depth- blue
Slope- yellow
How to Determine the Diameter of a Crater
The diameter of an object is defined as any straight line segment that passes through the center
of a circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. Clearly the Ejecta of the Tycho Crater is not a
circle, but it’s still possible to find the diameter. Using Image J, a program that helps us figure the
accurate measures, we first set a scale for the size of the picture compared to the actual size of the
crater itself. Then, we use the line selection tool and trace a straight line from edge to edge through
the center of the circle. Lastly, by clicking the option “analyze” we can have accurate measures of
the diameter. After following these steps, we came to find that the diameter of this ejecta of the
The depth of an object is defined as a dimension taken through an
object or body of material, usually downward from an upper
surface, horizontally inward from an outer surface, or from top to
bottom of something regarded as one of several layers. Since we
can’t actually go to the moon and measure the depth of the Ejecta
of the Tycho crater, we just measured the diameter of the shadow
to find the depth. We found the depth to measure .894 km.
The
The depth
depth
Finding the slope of the Tycho Crater
Finding slope was perhaps the more
challenging characteristic to find. Slope is defined as
rise/run. To find this characteristic we measured the
length and width of the shadow which will project the
rise and run of the ejecta of the Tycho Crater. We
found that the slope was -.5 km by taking the rise,
.66 km, and dividing it by the run, 1.29 km. The line
of the slope runs downward so the slope would be
negative.
-.5 km
A= .66km
B= 1.29km
Floor of the
Tycho Crater
-1.667 km diameter
-Impact melt is when
rocks were heated to
high temperatures
during contact, and
melted when it did
contact the moon. The
melted rock flowed
across the floor of the
moon.
-Impact melt flowed
downhill, and pooled.
The Tycho crater is
located in the
southern highlands.
The southern
highlands are areas
on the moon with
higher elevation
and lighter in color.
This area on the
moon is populated
with many craters,
such as the Tycho
crater.
* Red indicates location of crater
There are not any
boulders on the crater
wall.
-The walls of the crater
are just terraced.
-There are also central
mountains which are
easily viewed be
binoculars.
-The wall is also sloping
down to rough floor.
-
The Tycho
Crater Wall
The
The range of the diameters is 28 kilometers.
A presence of crypto-mare unit at a depth of 10 kilometers
estimates that there may possibly be a depth-diameter
relationship.
We took the latitudes and
longitudes of each crater,
and put the coordinates on
the Microsoft Excel
program. Then on
earthpoint.us . This website
allows us to take our
coordinates of surrounding
craters, and markers are
placed at the exact location
of each crater with a label.
Surrounding the Tycho crater, are craters of various size.
Smaller craters surrounding the Tycho are secondary craters.
Secondary craters formed from larger chunks of the Tycho Crater’s ejecta.
Secondary craters are impact craters formed by the ejecta that was thrown out
of a larger crater. They sometimes form radial crater chains.
-It’s a Copernican crater due to its well developed ray pattern. Rays reach up
to 1,500 kilometers. Sections of these rays can still be observed when Tycho is
illuminated only by earthlight.
Craters of various size is shown
above
An example of moon rays
-Lava ponds found near the Tycho crater contain
rich Ca-pyroxene.
-The Tycho Crater contains an average titanium
content.
- Plagioclase rich blocks
Pyroxene sample
A titanium concentration map of the moon
-Conspicuous central peak
-Wall
-Rim
-Ejecta blanket
-Volcanic activity leading to
modifications of central peak
-Lava pond
-Pyroclastics
-Basalts
• The Tycho crater is
relatively young with
an estimated age of
108 million years.
•It’s age suggests that
the impactor belongs
to the Baptistina
family of asteroids.
•There’s also a 70%
possibility that the
Tycho crater was
created by a fragment
that created Chicxulub
Crater on Earth 65
million years ago
which is believed to be
the extinction of the
dinosaurs.
Tycho Crater
Chicxulub Crater
Scientists think that both of these craters
are formed from the same asteroid
fragment.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank a
few people before ending
this project…
-Dr. Haridas Chandran
(Doc)
-Mr. Gannon
-All our teachers for giving
us the knowledge and
support
-Andrew Shaner
-Justin Filiberto
-NASA, for inspiring us.
Lastly, we would like to
thank our parents for
allowing us to follow
through with this project.