Allgemeines Physikalisches Kolloquium - WS 2013/14

Ort:	48149 Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, IG 1, HS 2
Zeit:	Donnerstag, 12.12.2013, 16 Uhr c.t.
	Kolloquiums-Kaffe: ab 15:45 Uhr vor dem Hörsaal

been there - done that! a synthesis of current lunar exploration

Prof. Dr. Harald Hiesinger, Institut für Planetologie, WWU Münster

The Moon is considered the single most important planetary body to understanding not only Earth, but all terrestrial planets in our Solar System in terms of planetary processes. Building on earlier telescopic observations, our knowledge about the Moon was drastically expanded by the wealth of information provided by Apollo and other missions of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as several recent space missions, including Smart-1, Chandrayaan, Chang’e-1, SELENE (Kaguya), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), LCROSS, and GRAIL. Telescopic observations from Earth, observations by spacecraft from lunar orbit, measurements on the lunar surface by manned and unmanned landed missions, the analyses of lunar samples including those returned by the Apollo and Luna missions, and lunar meteorites found on Earth are important sources of information that were used to develop and test various hypotheses and models that were subsequently applied to other terrestrial bodies. Although the recent data have helped to address some of our questions about the Earth-Moon system, many questions remain unanswered. The presentation will review our current understanding of the Moon and will demonstrate why the Moon remains an extremely interesting target scientifically and technologically.

Einladender: Prof. Dr. H. Zacharias

Im Auftrag der Hochschullehrer des Fachbereichs Physik

Prof. Dr. N.A. Stolwijk