Mystic Moon: Mystic Moon Esbat

Student perspectives on worship services from Instructor Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez\u27s Religious Studies 108 Human Spirituality course at Virginia Commonwealth University

Simulating the Phases of the Moon Shortly After Its Formation

The leading theory for the origin of the Moon is the giant impact hypothesis, in which the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from the collision of a Mars-sized body with the Earth. Soon after its formation, the orbit of the Moon may have been very different than it is today. We have simulated the phases of the Moon in a model for its formation wherein the Moon develops a highly elliptical orbit with its major axis tangential to the Earth's orbit. This note describes these simulations and their pedagogical value.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Analytical Model for the Tidal Evolution of the Evection Resonance and the Timing of Resonance Escape

A high-angular momentum giant impact with the Earth can produce a Moon with a silicate isotopic composition nearly identical to that of Earth's mantle, consistent with observations of terrestrial and lunar rocks. However, such an event requires subsequent angular momentum removal for consistency with the current Earth-Moon system. The early Moon may have been captured into the evection resonance, occurring when the lunar perigee precession period equals one year. It has been proposed that after a high-angular momentum giant impact, evection removed the angular momentum excess from the Earth-Moon pair and transferred it to Earth's orbit about the Sun. However, prior N-body integrations suggest this result depends on the tidal model and chosen tidal parameters. Here we examine the Moon's encounter with evection using a complementary analytic description and the Mignard tidal model. While the Moon is in resonance the lunar longitude of perigee librates, and if tidal evolution excites the libration amplitude sufficiently, escape from resonance occurs. The angular momentum drain produced by formal evection depends on how long the resonance is maintained. We estimate that resonant escape occurs early, leading to only a small reduction (~few to 10%) in the Earth-Moon system angular momentum. Moon formation from a high-angular momentum impact would then require other angular momentum removal mechanisms beyond standard libration in evection, as have been suggested previously.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Apollo particles and fields subsatellite magnetometer experiment

The results of the Apollo 15 subsatellite magnetometer experiment are reported. The magnetometer is described including the operation, and specifications. Orbit plots presented are altitude versus time, selenographic longitude versus latitude, and the ecliptic projection of the earth-moon system. The lunar magnetic field, solar wind interaction with the moon, the transfer function of the moon, and the plasma sheet interaction with the moon are discussed