Abstract
In conclusion of the second part of this book, concerned with the internal structure of our satellite, a few words should be added on the probable chemical composition of the lunar globe — a difficult subject to approach with any confidence at a distance, when most of its discussion has to rest on indirect arguments. Yet such arguments should enable us already at this stage to draw certain probable conclusions which should facilitate our discussion of certain topics in subsequent chapters. For this reason, as well as for the sake of demonstration of certain lines of deductive reasoning to which one must often resort in the studies of celestial objects at a distance we shall, in what follows, develop this topic as far as can be done on the eve of a space age in which direct acquaintance with the object of our study will largely supersede deductions made on theoretical grounds.
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Bibliographical Notes
Needless to stress, the chemical composition of the lunar globe — an object which so far can be studied only at a distance — can be investigated only by indirect methods within the framework of our general knowledge of cosmochemistry. Fundamental contributions to this field are those by Urey (1956a, 1957, 1958, 1958a, 1966); cf., also Briggs (1962), Palm and Strom (1962) or Warren (1963).
The problem of a possible lunar magnetic field has received considerable attention in recent years, since the flight of the Russian Lunik III, which on September 14, 1959 performed the first magneto-metric measurements in close proximity of the lunar globe (cf., Dolginov, Yeroshenko, Zhuzgov, Pushkov and Tyurmina, 1960; or Dolginov, Yeroshenko, Zhuzgov and Pushkov, 1962). For previous discussion of a possible magnetic screening by the Moon cf., e.g., Sucksdorf (1956); and, more recently, Bigg (1963a, b; 1964); or Dodson and Hedeman (1964).
For theoretical discussions of possible lunar magnetic fields, cf. Kopal (1959b), Singer and Wentworth (1959), Neugebauer (1960), Öpik and Singer (1960), Zharkov and Ulinich (1960), Singer and Walker (1961), Piddington (1962), Gold (1962a), Aronovitz and Milford (1965), and others.
A possibility of the occurrence of water or ice on the Moon, and estimates of its abundance, have been discussed by Watson, Murray and Brown (1961); Kopal (1961a, 1962c, 1963c), Gold (1962, 1965) and more recently by Gilvarry (1964b), Hapke and Goldberg (1965) and Urey (1965).
The lunar origin of tektites has first been suggested by Nininger (1943, 1947, 1952) and has since become the subject of a considerable literature. Among more recent contributions to this problem cf. Urey (1955, 1957a), Varsavsky (1958), Barnes (1958), Barnes, Kopal and Urey (1958), O’Keefe (1959, 1961, 1963), Barnes (1960), Chapman (1960), Lowman (1962), Chapman and Larson (1963), Hawkins (1963a), Greenland and Lovering (1963), Gilvarry (1965a, b) and others. A considerable number of other papers on this subject appeared, e.g., Geochimica and Cosmochimica Acta 28 (1964), or the Univ. of Chicago monograph on The Tektites (ed. by J. A. O’Keefe, 1963).
For a case of the lunar origin of chondritic meteorites cf. Urey (1959, 1962, 1965), but also Arnold (1965) or Öpik (1966). The possibility of an existence of indigenous organic matter on the Moon has first been mentioned by Sagan (1961); and the case for it was strengthened by more recent work by Oro, Wikstrom and Barghoorn (1965).
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© 1966 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Kopal, Z. (1966). Chemical Composition of the Moon. In: An Introduction to the Study of the Moon. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6320-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6320-2_11
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