Digital Eclipse Image Gallery
Apollo 14 Moon Rock
Presented below is a photomicrograph illustrating various textures seen in thin sections of rocks recovered from the Moon by Apollo 14 astronauts. This digital image was captured with the DXM 1200 ACT-1 control software in single-image acquisition mode utilizing polarized illumination.
Between 1969 and 1972 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully landed 12 astronauts on the lunar surface. The astronauts who visited the Moon carefully collected 2,196 documented samples of lunar soils and rocks weighing a total of 382 kilograms (843 pounds) during approximately 80 hours of exploration. It is important to note that these samples were gathered from a harsh lunar environment that included wildly fluctuating temperatures in an almost complete vacuum, dangerous solar radiation, and the uncertainty of return to Earth due to equipment failure.
Geologists hoped that exploration of the lunar surface would establish its composition, internal structure, geological history, and evolution. In this respect it was thought that the moon would serve as a model for the early history of the earth and the rest of the solar system.
However, based on Apollo-missions research, it has been determined that the moon is far more complex than previously thought. The earth's only satellite, which was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago along with the rest of the planets, has partially melted and differentiated during its history.
The lunar surface can be roughly divided into two domains. About half of the Moon's surface is covered by the dark lunar mares (Latin for seas) or lowlands. The photomicrograph illustrated in this section is derived from a polished thin section of a lunar impact breccia sample collected from the Fra Mauro region by Apollo 14 astronauts. This sample is 3.8 to 4.2 billion years old and gave evidence that the lunar highland plains were formed by meteorite impacts.
