Timeline for How long would a crater/mare on the Moon be glowing red and visible from earth?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 27 at 16:02 | vote | accept | Chromatic Realms | ||
| Apr 26 at 20:39 | answer | added | Kyle G | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 26 at 16:39 | comment | added | Chromatic Realms | @DuncanDrake there is still a limit. Let's assume for convenience that the temperature can be arbitrarily high as needed. The hotter it is the faster it will cool. There is a middle ground where it is hot enough to glow for as long as possible without being so hot as to be unreasonable (surface of the sun etc). I don't know the number but the goal is to have reasonable justification to still see red fracture scars on the Moon 500 years later. Is this at all reasonable? Or would it cool within days or years no matter what? That's all I'm asking | |
| Apr 26 at 9:00 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @DuncanDrake given the moon has a reasonable gravity well and no atmosphere, dust particles will follow a ballistic trajectory and settle out very quickly. Given the indicated size relative to the surface area of the moon, it seems unlikely that a significant amount of ejecta would fall back onto the molten area itself. | |
| Apr 26 at 8:51 | comment | added | Duncan Drake | Rock usually glows at temperatures above approximately 800 K. So whenever the temperature drops beneath this limit it won't be visible anymore at any distance. The question is: what is the temperature of the rock immediately after the disaster? The higher the temperature, the longer the glowing. Also, does the disaster cause clouds of dust? They would block the view. | |
| Apr 26 at 4:22 | comment | added | elemtilas | Thank you for editing that into your question! | |
| Apr 26 at 4:22 | history | edited | elemtilas | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Spelling Police.
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| Apr 26 at 1:51 | comment | added | Chromatic Realms | @elemtilas : about the size of Mare Imbrium, 700-800ish miles across | |
| Apr 26 at 1:48 | history | edited | Chromatic Realms | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 58 characters in body
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| Apr 26 at 1:46 | comment | added | Chromatic Realms | @GaultDrakkor : that's initially what I thought but it is not just a flow, but a vast sea of molten crust. Idk enough about the geology of the moon. Could the sudden pressure difference from the liquidized crust start short-lived volcanic or other geothermal processes that keep it going longer? How fast would it cool with less in the way of conductive medium due to the lack of atmosphere and flowing water etc... All the energy would dissipate through radiation. Would it form a skin that would keep the layer beneath the surface molten for longer, occasionally cracking to show red fracture? Idk | |
| Apr 26 at 0:27 | comment | added | Gault Drakkor | Have you looked at how long basaltic magma examples stay red glowing on earth? Going by those I would expect less then 48 hours. because there is the how long will it be red hot, how visible is red hot from Earth? | |
| Apr 26 at 0:26 | comment | added | elemtilas | Nice question! Can you tell us (approximately) how big and how deep you envisage the catastrophe to have affected the Moon? "Huge portion" could be half the Moon! I'm asking for this clarification simply because the more energy is in the original wound, the longer any molten stone (magma) will glow; and the converse is similarly true. | |
| S Apr 25 at 23:10 | review | First questions | |||
| Apr 25 at 23:25 | |||||
| S Apr 25 at 23:10 | history | asked | Chromatic Realms | CC BY-SA 4.0 |