Idaho Skies Transcript for the Weekend of January 17th

STEPHEN

Welcome to Idaho Skies for the weekend of January 17^th. We’re your hosts, Stephen…

DAN

…and Dan.

STEPHEN

The moon reaches third quarter on the 17^th. Late sleepers and early risers will find the half full moon in the east while it’s still dark. Since the moon is half full, the shadows cast by the rising sun strongly accentuate lunar features like craters and mountains. Stargazers with binoculars will want to aim them at the moon on the 17^th.   

DAN

Lunar craters where one time thought to be volcanic in nature. Observations of bullets striking the ground gave no indication that craters could form from impacts. The error was assuming that a “slow” bullet behaved like a meteoroid colliding with the ground at hypersonic speeds.  

STEPHEN

At impact though, a meteoroid vaporizes the ground in the immediate area. Land farther away gets peeled back and then flipped over. This means the closer an astronaut walks to a crater’s rim, the deeper the rock layers originated. Therefore, one need not actually climb down into a crater to get deep rock samples. 

DAN

Many of the craters you’ll see on the moon formed during the late heavy bombardment, or around 3.8 billion years ago. This was a time when planets and moons were sweeping up planetary building blocks. These building blocks are called planetesimals and they condensed from the original gas and dust of the solar system.

STEPHEN

That’s Idaho Skies for the weekend of January 17^th.   

DAN

Be sure to read our blog for additional information. It’s at idahoskies.blogspot.com.

For Idaho Skies this is Dan…

STEPHEN

…and Stephen.

DAN

Dark skies and bright stars.