Areas of Science Astronomy
Difficulty
Time Required Average (6-10 days)
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Abstract

Get good photographs of the Moon showing lots of craters and count how many craters you find in a range of diameter classes. One useful source is the Consolidated Lunar Atlas (Kuiper et al, 2006). Make a histogram that shows the distribution of diameters. Most of these craters were formed during the first billion years of the Moon's formation, but you should confirm that this is true for the the Moon areas you've selected in your photographs by doing background research. Is cratering uniform across the surface of the Moon? Can you find evidence to support the assumption that the frequency of craters you count for each size range can be related to the cratering time scale for that size range? Perhaps this will be true only in certain areas of the Moon's surface. Perhaps you will find other clues to distinguish ancient craters from more recent ones. But if the assumptions above hold true, the interval between small cratering events is just the number of those craters you count over the whole Moon, divided by 1 billion years. With this information, you could estimate the ages for some of the larger craters you find in which smaller craters are seen inside them (Odenwald, 1997; Wood, C., 2006; Kuiper et al., 2006).

Bibliography

  • Kuiper, et al. Consolidated Lunar Atlas. available online from the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
  • Odenwald, S., 1997. Questions and Answers. Ask the Astronomer, Astronomy Cafe website. Retrieved March 6, 2018.

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MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Lunar Crater Counting." Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/astro_p029/astronomy/lunar-crater-counting. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). Lunar Crater Counting. Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/astro_p029/astronomy/lunar-crater-counting


Last edit date: 2020-11-20

Experimental Procedure

For this science project you will need to develop your own experimental procedure. Use the information in the summary tab as a starting place. If you would like to discuss your ideas or need help troubleshooting, use the Ask An Expert forum. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions and offer guidance if you come to them with specific questions.

If you want a Project Idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk (*) at the end of the title.

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