Question

When astronauts brought back rock samples from the Moon, the minerals present were mostly the same as those found on Earth. Can you think of reasons why this might be so? Would you expect minerals on Mars or Venus to be the same, or at least very similar, to those on Earth?

Answer 1

The Moon is very close to the Earth in terms to the other planets; therefore, I believe that they were probably developed around the same time, which would result in common mineral. As for Mars and Venus, are the closest planets to Earth so I would expect that the mineral on these two planets would me similar but not the same due to the distant. I would also believe that the minerals found on Mars and Venus to be similar to Earth but not the same because there are different variables on each planet which could affect the minerals from which the planets are made up of. According to Strobel (2011), “Venus, Earth, and Mars are approximately at the same distance from the Sun. This means they formed out of the same material and had approximately the same initial temperatures 4.6 billion years ago. Long ago these three planets probably had moderate enough temperatures suitable for life. However, Venus is now much too hot for life and Mars is too cold for life” (para. 1).