What dynamic defines the environment on the Moon concerning temperature for an exposed body?
Answer
Severe thermal cycling between extremely hot lunar day and freezing lunar night.
The Moon lacks a substantial atmosphere to moderate temperatures, leading to massive temperature swings between its day and night cycles. During the lunar day, surfaces can reach well above the boiling point of water, causing intense drying effects on any exposed material. During the lunar night, temperatures plummet hundreds of degrees below freezing. An object on the surface would be subjected to this severe thermal cycling over successive cycles, potentially causing physical degradation through repeated expansion and contraction, causing materials to crack and flake over immense timescales, even though biological decomposition is absent.
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