ASTRO-110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Carbonate Rock, Lithosphere, Plate Tectonics
9 Oct 2020
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Atmospheric gases can trap heat through what we call the greenhouse effect. This effect is crucial to life on earth. The greenhouse effect keeps earths surface much warmer than it would be otherwise, allowing water to stay liquid over most of the surface. This occurs when the atmosphere temporarily traps some of this infrared light, slowing its return to space. Greenhouse gases include: water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane. These tend to slow the escape of infrared radiation. More greenhouse gas presents the greater the degree of surface warming. Should have had hot interiors early in their histories. Not all regions of the moons surface look the same. Sights of large impacts that were later flooded by lava. The maria is generally circular because they are flooded craters dark, iron-rich rock. Numerous small-scale features attesting to volcanic and tectonic activity. Water ice, presumably deposited by comet impact over millions of years, resides in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles.
