First footprints of humans on the Moon
First footprints of humans on the Moon
Buzz Aldrin’s photograph of his footprint in the lunar dust is an icon of the 20th century. It was not taken to document the first footprints of the ‘Moon Boots’, but because Aldrin observed that the footprints had sharp edges and that the dust did not slip. Moon dust – referred to as regolith by geologists – does not consist of rounded granules, as is usually the case on Earth, but of microscopically small, jagged and easily interlocked particles that have strong cohesion. The unusual structure of the lunar dust results from micrometeorites that melt the regolith on impact, after which it solidifies again immediately.
