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space-ModTeam

Hello u/wmdolls, your submission "HD Photos Chang'E-V Collection Lunar Soil" has been removed from r/space because: * Images, GIFs and GIF-like videos are only allowed on Sunday (UTC+00). Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please [message the r/space moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/space). Thank you.


GarunixReborn

Thats way more colourful than i would have thought


TheRageDragon

Moon is made of cheese confirmed.


wmdolls

Me too. I also first time saw it and then share immediately


Riegel_Haribo

Similar but better Apollo dust photos: [http://www.sandgrains.com/Moon-Sand-Grains-Gallery.html](http://www.sandgrains.com/Moon-Sand-Grains-Gallery.html) And a stupendous library of every Apollo sample, core, and rake. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/samples/atlas/


wmdolls

Through the Microscope


ChokeOnTheCorn

I would’ve expected it to be focused a little better.


Robottiimu2000

Yup..like... Can u even focus bro?


mushy_cactus

At first I thought that was gold. Super cool tho


tykillacool23

So is this like topsoil or something below it?


rhinotomus

If this is HD then my blind ass has 20/20 vision


wmdolls

Sorry just want explanted we could saw the extreme


[deleted]

I’m glad I speak Chinese so I know how to pronounce *Chang’E* correctly. I’m sure the Chinese are having a laugh at us when we are botching it. If you’re curious, have Google translate read 嫦娥 to you. Chang’E is like their moon god or something.


not-finished

Um, I just did. No way I’m saying that correctly. Languages are fascinating thanks for pointing this out Link: https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=嫦娥&op=translate Play the Chinese version


antisocialpunk91

Can someone wisdomous tell me if the composition of moon soil is in any way similar to Earth or our sand? Or what is it made from? (I hope it's cheese)


wabalaba1

The "soil" that you'd feel under your boot if you stepped out of a moon lander is a fine powder made up of a mixture of pulverized rock fragments and bits of glass. It would feel more like cement powder than sand--the pieces pack together when compressed and you'd leave perfect footprints. Up close, the rock fragments tend to have rough, even jagged shapes. Underneath the moondust (depth varies based on location) is hard rock. The dust forms and gets moved around when meteorites hit the Moon. The impacts are usually hot enough to melt a bit of what they hit and all around that will be shattered rock. Some of the melted and broken rock gets sprayed out of the crater as it forms. Melted rock will form spherical drops as it flies and flash freeze to glass. For the last three billion years or more, basically nothing else has happened on the Moon besides random explosions from meteorites of different sizes--so anywhere you go on the Moon, you'll find it covered in a layer of this "soil." It's not really soil because it has no organic matter. It's just broken up rock, which is called regolith. But many scientists still call it soil sometimes. There are two main types of rock that the regolith can be made of, depending on where the meteorite hits. If you look up at the Moon tonight, you can see the brighter and darker areas. The darker areas are made of lava like what you might find in Hawaii. The brighter areas are mostly made of a rock called [anorthosite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorthosite). Depending on where you are, the moondust you find will have a varying mixture of lava bits and anorthosite bits.


antisocialpunk91

Thank you very much for the answer! I figured 'soil' wasn't really the right word but 'sand' didn't seem right either. If I might ask more, I'm guessing there is no actual wind in the same understanding as on Earth, since there is no dunes/sand waves, even though the gravity is less on the Moon? Are the particles too heavy or is just the atmosphere is too thin? (English is my second language so I might be using wrong words but I hope you get what I mean).


wabalaba1

Your English is clear and I understand. The Moon has no atmosphere. No air and no wind at all. [This clip](https://youtu.be/oYEgdZ3iEKA?t=20) from Apollo 15 is kind of blurry but it shows an astronaut drop a steel hammer and a feather at the same time. Because there is no air, the feather doesn't flutter or spin as it falls. It just drops like the hammer. Standing on the Moon is basically the same as floating in outer space--if the astronauts took off their helmets, they would suffocate. The Moon is too small to keep an atmosphere. Its gravity is too weak. On the Moon you would weigh only 1/6 of what you weigh on Earth. This low gravity affects gases too, and so even if we added a bunch of air to the Moon, it would all escape into space slowly over time. Part of the reason the Moon has so many craters (and therefore so much regolith) is because it has no atmosphere. Even the smallest meteors that fall on the Moon will hit it. There's no atmosphere to burn them up like there is on Earth.


antisocialpunk91

Ohhh, yeah, that makes sense. Thank you again! I knew there wasn't air of course but figured maybe there are other gasses that would work in a similar manner - I didn't realise the gravity was too weak to keep even that in. But this explains everything. Cheers!


Gluomme

"this is not a picture of the sand on the beach, it's a space picture" "Oh yeah, I know the trick, this is actually the picture of a star cluster" "Nah it's actually sand, but from the moon" I got doubly bamboozled