What is the moon made of?
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If you could pick up one moon rock, what do you think it would feel like?
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Transcript
What is the moon made of? Let's take a close look!
The moon is a huge round world made mostly of rock. Its ground has gray dust and many rocks.
Long ago, space rocks bumped into the moon and made round holes called craters. The moon has no thick air to rub the holes away.
Deep inside, the moon has hot rock and a small middle part with metal. But its outside is cool, dusty rock.
So the moon is mostly a big ball of rock, dust, and a little metal. Those round craters tell part of its long space story!
For grown-ups: the science
The moon is mostly made of rock and dust, with some metal deep inside.
The Moon is a differentiated rocky body. Its crust and mantle are mostly silicate rocks, including basalt and anorthosite, while its small core contains iron and other metals. Its surface is covered by regolith, a layer of broken rock and dust made by impacts. With almost no atmosphere, impact craters erode very slowly.