Led by Galileo Galilei
About this course
The opening module of Paper 2 of the Edexcel GCSE Astronomy course returns to the Moon with telescopic vision and the question of origin. The student examines the lunar interior in comparison with Earth's, accounts for the dramatic difference between the maria-dominated near side and the cratered far side, traces how knowledge of the far side has been gathered since Luna 3 in 1959, calculates the energy demands of escape velocity, and weighs the Giant Impact Hypothesis against the alternative Capture and Co-accretion theories.
It is led by Galileo Galilei, who in 1609–10 first measured the heights of lunar mountains from the lengths of their cast shadows — the same geometric trick Eratosthenes had used for the Earth eighteen centuries earlier — and ended the Aristotelian doctrine of a perfectly smooth Moon.
The student leaves the module able to describe the lunar interior, account for the near/far asymmetry, describe how the far side was first photographed and subsequently mapped, calculate and apply Earth's escape velocity, describe the Giant Impact Hypothesis, and identify the key evidential difficulty for each of the Capture and Co-accretion alternatives.
Led by Galileo Galilei
The question
What does the Moon look like inside, why is the side we never see so different from the side we always see, how was that hidden side first photographed, what does it cost in energy to send a spacecraft there, and how did the Moon come to be there in the first place? The spec asks the student to compare the lunar and terrestrial interiors, account for the dramatic near/far asymmetry, describe how information about the far side was gathered, calculate and apply escape velocity, and weigh the Giant Impact Hypothesis against the Capture and Co-accretion alternatives.
Outcome
the student can describe the lunar interior, account for the near/far asymmetry, trace how knowledge of the far side has been gathered, calculate and apply Earth's escape velocity, describe the Giant Impact Hypothesis, and identify the principal evidential challenges to the Capture and Co-accretion alternatives. *(Edexcel 1AS0 Paper 2 — Topic 9, spec points 9.1–9.5)*
Sub-units