A friendly Aussie astro club

[centroid]

Went along to a meeting of the Astronomical Society of Western Australia last night, where I was made very welcome, by a nice bunch of people.

After a cuppa and a natter, there was a talk on 'dating events on the Moon', by a visiting University professor.

His talk, and Power Point presentation was absolutely fascinating. In his research they are analysing moon rock, and studying the Zircon crytals contained within it. From this, they can date the crystals and understand the processes by which they had formed.

It seems that all moon rock, is constituted very small (minute) pieces of material, that had been smashed up by huge impact events, heated to phenominal temperatures (by impact), and then cooled into what we have as moon rock.

This process would have happened multiple times, over millions of years.

In interesting fact, is that these Zircon crytals, were originally formed as the Moon cooled from a molten mass, as did the Earth.

Zircon crystals, of the same age and type as those from the Moon, are found in the Jack Hills, in the Pilbarra Region of Western Australia. Apparently, the only place on Earth that they are known to exist. These crystals date back to around 150 million years, after the Earth was formed as a molten mass, and had cooled down.

I'm looking forward to going along to the another coouple of meetings, before returning home.

Dave

[moondog]

Dave - glad you're not wasting your time lounging around on the beach in Perth!

Sounds like you've found a good bunch of astro people and had an interesting talk. Any chance of you nipping out to the Aussie outback and bringing a few Zyrcon crystals back with you?

8)

MD

[centroid]

Would be nice John, but the Pilbarra region is around 30 to 40 hours drive North. :shock:

Dave