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445,000,000 BCE
Collision of earth and formation of the moon
At the time the Earth formed 4.45 billion years ago, other planetary bodies were also growing. One of these hit earth late in Earth's growth process, blowing out rocky debris. A fraction of that debris went into orbit around the Earth and aggregated into the moon. -
400,000,000 BCE
Formation of lithosphere
4 billion years ago magma rose and infiltrated the lunar crust and cooled chemically forming basalt the lithosphere (material in earth's mantle) and shrank the asthenosphere towards the core also expanding the lithosphere. This formed the Moon's interior -
390,000,000 BCE
Formation of basins and mountains
Spanning from 4.6 to 3.9 billion years ago the majority of meteorite and large object impacts on the moon forming basins and mountains from explosive and large impacts -
370,000,000 BCE
The maria impact basins flooded by lava
The Maria (lowlands) Impact basins flooded by lava from 3.7 to 2.5 billion years ago resulting in the moon loosing most of it's heat -
Luna 1 flyby
January 1959 a small soviet probe (Luna 1) flew by the moon at 5995 km revealed the moon had no magnetic field and evidence of solar wind -
Luna 2 impact landing
1959 Luna 2 lands on the moon's surface and captures the first images of the far side of the moon before impacting the surface -
NASA Ranger 4 landing
1962 NASA landed it's first spacecraft (Ranger 4) on the moon which crashed on the far side of the moon after failing and returning no data -
Ranger 7 photo capture
1964 Ranger 7 captured more than 4000 photos in 17 minutes before it crashed in the surface. Ranger 9 showed that the surface was rough highlighting the fact of finding a smooth landing site on the surface, -
Luna 9 moon landing
1966 Luna 9 overcame the moon's topographic hurdles and became the first vehicle to land on the moon's surface. The vehicle photographed a surface panorama. Luna 10 launched and became the first vehicle to orbit the moon -
NASA Surveyor probe landings
The NASA surveyor space probes from 1966 to 1968 became the first crafts to perform controlled landings on the moon's surface and analysed soil samples -
NASA Lunar orbiters chart the moon
In 1966 and 1967 NASA launched lunar orbiters to circle the moon and charted 99% of it's surface for preparations for future manned landings -
Apollo manned moon landing
July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two people to land on and walk on the moon when the Apollo 11 lunar lander landed in the sea of tranquillity -
Leading hypothesis of moon origin
First suggestion of the leading modern hypothesis of the moon's origin in a paper published in 1975 in journal icarus by senior PSI scientists, Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis -
Clementine wavelength mapping
1994 NASA Clementine mission succeeds mapping the moon's surface in wavelengths -
Lunar Prospector polar search
1999 the Lunar Prospector orbited the moon in search of ice at the lunar poles. It also remapped the surface by exploring the moon's gravitational field. The craft crashed intentionally into the moon to yield evidence of water ice, but none was observed -
Staging point for Mars mission
2020 US plans to return humans to the moon as a staging point to reach Mars and beyond