Editing Moon (section)

=== Gravitational field ===
[[File:Youtubeastronautsonmoonot3.gif|thumb|Astronaut [[John Young (astronaut)|John Young]] jumping on the Moon, illustrating that the [[Gravitational acceleration|gravitational pull]] of the Moon is approximately 1/6 of Earth's. The jumping height is limited by the EVA space suit's weight on the Moon of about {{cvt|13.6|kg|lbs}} and by the suit's pressurization resisting the bending of the suit, as needed for jumping.<ref name="Kluger 2018 z081">{{cite magazine |last=Kluger |first=Jeffrey |title=How Neil Armstrong's Moon Spacesuit Was Preserved for Centuries to Come |magazine=Time |date=October 12, 2018 |url=https://time.com/5422609/armstrong-spacesuit-smithsonian/ |access-date=November 29, 2023 |archive-date=December 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203061321/https://time.com/5422609/armstrong-spacesuit-smithsonian/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Nast 2013 v237">{{cite magazine |title=How Do You Pick Up Something on the Moon? |magazine=WIRED |date=December 9, 2013 |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/12/how-do-you-pick-up-something-on-the-moon/ |access-date=November 29, 2023 |archive-date=December 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203061321/https://www.wired.com/2013/12/how-do-you-pick-up-something-on-the-moon/ |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

On average the Moon's [[surface gravity]] is {{val|1.62|ul=m/s2}}<ref name="NSSDC" /> ({{val|0.1654|u=[[G-force|g]]}}; {{val|5.318|ul=ft/s2}}), about half of the surface gravity of [[Mars]] and about a sixth of Earth's.

The [[Gravitation of the Moon|Moon's gravitational field]] is not uniform. The details of the gravitational field have been measured through tracking the [[Doppler shift]] of radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The main lunar gravity features are [[mass concentration (astronomy)|mascons]], large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins, partly caused by the dense mare basaltic lava flows that fill those basins.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Muller |first=P. |author2=Sjogren, W. |title=Mascons: lunar mass concentrations |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=161 |pages=680–684 |date=1968 |doi=10.1126/science.161.3842.680 |pmid=17801458 |issue=3842 |bibcode=1968Sci...161..680M |s2cid=40110502}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |author=Richard A. Kerr |title=The Mystery of Our Moon's Gravitational Bumps Solved? |volume=340 |issue=6129 |pages=138–139 |date=April 12, 2013 |doi=10.1126/science.340.6129.138-a |pmid=23580504}}</ref> The anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon. There are some puzzles: lava flows by themselves cannot explain all of the gravitational signature, and some mascons exist that are not linked to mare volcanism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Konopliv |first=A. |author2=Asmar, S. |author3=Carranza, E. |author4=Sjogren, W. |author5=Yuan, D. |title=Recent gravity models as a result of the Lunar Prospector mission |journal=[[Icarus (journal)|Icarus]] |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=1–18 |date=2001 |doi=10.1006/icar.2000.6573 |bibcode=2001Icar..150....1K |url=http://techreports.jpl.nasa.gov/2000/00-1301.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041113045200/http://techreports.jpl.nasa.gov/2000/00-1301.pdf |archive-date=November 13, 2004 |citeseerx=10.1.1.18.1930}}</ref>