By Dr Anthony Cook

Introduction

Conventional geologic wisdom suggests that the Moon is pretty much dead and that the bulk of lunar volcanism, which formed the dark maria, occurred between 4.2 and 3.2 billion years ago with the last vestiges of more localized lunar volcanism ceasing ~1 billion years ago. Although impact cratering is still ongoing, it is at such low levels now that new craters are too small to be resolved with Earth-based telescopes as they are at most just a few metres in diameter, and the smallest impact craters one can detect (but not resolve) from amateur based telescopes are about 1 km in size.

However we offer a range of observational and citizen science programmes that provide you with the chance to:

(1) Observe present day impact flashes on the Moon

(2) Resolve historical observational puzzles indicative of change

(3) Detect metre scale changes in spacecraft imagery

(4) A checklist if you ever see a Transient Lunar Phenomenon (TLP)

Click on any of the options above to read more about our programmes.   

For further information, please email the Lunar Geological Change Detection coordinator, Tony Cook on: atc@aber.ac.uk

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