Footprints to last millions of years
QUESTION If astronauts return to the Moon, will they still be able to see the footprints of some of the previous Moon-walkers?
FOOTPRINTS on the Moon will last for millions of years, due to the lack of atmosphere and weathering on the Moon’s surface. On Earth, wind, rain and other environmental factors erode footprints quickly.
Footprints on the Moon will be erased only by micrometeorite impacts and the occasional moonquake. The slow churning of lunar soil (regolith) by thermal cycling and solar radiation can gradually degrade the sharpness of the footprints over time.
In 2009, Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was sent to the Moon to make high-resolution maps of the composition of the lunar surface. It photographed each of the six Apollo landing sites from low orbit and the astronauts’ tracks are plainly visible.
E. F. Cowley, Cromer, Norfolk.
QUESTION Was Lynne Truss’s book title Eats, Shoots And Leaves the punchline to a joke?
THE BOOK title is, indeed, the punchline to a joke. It illustrates the importance of correct punctuation and how it can influence or change the meaning of a sentence.
A panda goes into a bar and orders some food. The landlord supplies food, which is consumed by said panda. When he has finished, the panda takes out a gun and shoots the waiter behind the bar, then calmly begins to walk away. The outraged landlord asks him what on earth he is doing. The panda replies: ‘I’m a panda, it’s what I do. Look me up in the dictionary.’
The landlord does just that and reads: ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’ (Our panda has been misled by a stray comma).
Truss was promoting the importance of grammar to ensure the correct meaning. Clever lady.
C. sewell, solihull, West Midlands.
QUESTION What was Britain’s first steam-powered ship?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, HMS Warrior (1860), on display in Portsmouth, wasn’t an ironclad (a wooden ship with additional iron or steel plating fixed to the hull).
Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships. They were built in response to France’s launching of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the Gloire, in 1859.
J. smith, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
■ IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.