Abstract
Having considered the bearing of the theory of hydrostatic equilibrium on internal structure of the Moon, and compared its consequences with available observations, let us turn now to investigate the conclusions which can be drawn from an application, to the Moon’s interior, of the principle of the conservation of energy in so far as the internal temperature in lunar interior is concerned.
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Bibliographical Notes
Although the mathematical problem of the cooling of a sphere radioactively heated within was solved already by Lowan (1933, 1934, 1935) more than thirty years ago, its first application to the thermal history of the Moon we owe to Urey (1952, 1955, 1957, 1962), followed by MacDonald (1959), Levin and Mayeva (1960), Kopal (1961, 1962a), Levin (1962) and others. The most extensive numerical computations carried out so far are those by Kopal (1962a). It is, however, to Urey that we owe the realization that radiogenic heating of the Moon should alone be sufficient to keep the bulk of its mass at a temperature in excess of 1000° K — possibly approaching the melting point of the Moon’s mass in some parts of the deep interior. Of subsequent literature cf. also Levin (1963), or Ornatskaya (1964) and Levin and Mayeva (1964).
The relative importance of a radiative (as distinct from conductive) transport of energy in the interior of the terrestrial planets has first been pointed out by Clark (1956, 1957), and subsequently applied to the Moon by MacDonald (1959). The mathematical treatment of the subject as given in this chapter is, however, due to Kopal (1963a). For the actual values of the absorption coefficients k λ of silicate rocks in the visible light or near infrared cf., e.g., Clark (1957a). A treatment of the problem of the heating of the Moon by insolation, as given in the latter part of this section, is due to Kopal (1965a).
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© 1966 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Kopal, Z. (1966). Thermal History 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_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6320-2_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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