Understanding the ways in which the solar system and space beyond formed is essential to achieving human exploration in space. Additionally, understanding the formation and evolution of the Moon is the key to jump-starting this foray into space. The Moon holds key information to unlocking the evolution of the solar system, as well as potential opportunities for future colonies, exploration, or extraction of natural resources.
The Moon is the most explored body in the solar system other than the Earth, and the basic concepts of planetary formation by giant impact origin and planetary evolution processes are based on the data obtained by past lunar missions. Ever since the return and analysis of samples in 1969 by the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, a number of investigators have advocated for the segregation of low-density plagioclase via a large scale-melting event in an attempt to help explain the large occurrences of plagioclase-rich crust on the Moon (Fig. 1; Smith et al. 1970; Wood...
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Davenport, J.D. (2016). Lunar Magma Ocean. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_31-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_31-1
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