A photograph Full Moon taken on 22 October 2010 from Madison, Alabama, USA by Gregory H.  Revera – Wikimedia commons

20 of the Coolest Facts about the Moon


 

How many times do you sit outside at night during the summer just to watch the moon? Don’t find it beautiful when you do camping on a moon day? Well, personally, it is a breathtaking view to watch the moon illuminate the stars at night. You can make wishes on a full moon day, it’s good for your health.

With freedom, books, flowers, travel blogs by Discover Walks, and the Moon, who could not be happy? The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth. In the article are 20 of the coolest facts about the moon.

1. The moon is Earth’s only permanent natural satellite

The moon is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the solar system. It is the Earth’s only permanent natural satellite. A satellite is a body that revolves around another body in a path called orbit.

The earth is a satellite of the sun because it moves around the sun and the moon is a satellite of the Earth because it moves around the planet. The moon is the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size to the size of the planet that it orbits.

2. The moon is the second densest satellite

The Bangkok Supermoon photograph by PEAK99 – Wikimedia commons

The moon is the second densest satellite in the solar system after Jupiter. However, the inner core of the moon is small, with a radius of about 350 kilometres or less, and around 20% of the radius of the moon.

Jupiter is 90% hydrogen, with 10% helium and a sprinkle of all other elements. In the gas giant’s outer layers, hydrogen is agas just like on Earth. As you go deeper, intense atmospheric pressure gradually turns the gas into a dense fluid.

3. The moon always shows Earth the same face

The moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth. Its near side is marked by large dark plains that fill the spaces between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent crater.

A fool moon occurs when the moon appears as a complete circle in the sky. We see it as a full orb because the whole side of the moon facing the Earth is lit up by the sun’s rays. The moon produces no visible light of its own, so we can only see the parts of the moon that are lit up by other objects.

4. The moon is drifting away from the Earth!

A public domain photo of the moon by Wikimedia commons

The moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from the Earth every year! The moon is driven by the effect of the moon’s gravity on the rotating Earth. Tides raised in the oceans cause drag and thus slow the Earth’s spin rate. The resulting loss of angular momentum is compensated for by the moon speeding up and thus moving further away.

The famous English astronomer Edmond Halley first suspected the moon was receding nearly 300 years ago, after studying records of ancient eclipses. His suspicions were finally confirmed in the 1970s when laser beams bounced off mirrors put on the moon by US-Soviet missions showing that it is moving away at the rate of 3.8cm per year.

5. The moon’s surface is dark

The moon’s surface is dark although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its gravitational influence produces the ocean tides and the slight lengthening of the day.

That grey colour people see comes from the surface of the moon which is mostly oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium and aluminium. The lighter colour rocks are usually plagioclase feldspar, while the darker rocks are pyroxene.

6. The sun and the moon are not the same sizes

A photo of the crescent moonlight and the sunset by Abdul Malik77 – Wikimedia commons

From Earth, both the sun and the Moon look about the same size. The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it also 400 times closer to Earth. The sun is a star while the moon is a large mass of rock and dirt.

The sun, like most stars, is a mass of gases. In the sun’s case, this is mostly hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and several other elements.

Both bodies appear to emit light, at least to the human eye. The sun, however, produces its energy and therefore its light. The moon has no light of its own but reflects the light of the sun.

7. The moon makes the earth move as well as the tides

Everyone knows that the moon is partly responsible for causing the tides of our oceans and seas on Earth, with the sun also having an effect.

However, as the moon orbits the Earth, it causes a tide of rock to rise and fall in the same way as it does with the water. The effect is not as dramatic as with the oceans, but it is a measurable effect, with the solid surface of the Earth moving by several centimetres with each tide.

8. The moon was made when a rock smashed into Earth

The most widely-accepted explanation is that the moon was created when a rock the size of Mars slammed into Earth, shortly after the solar system was forming about 4.5 billion years ago.

Theia is a hypothesized ancient planet in the early solar system that, according to the giant-impact hypothesis collided with the early Earth with some of the resulting ejected debris gatherings to form the moon.

In addition to explaining Earth’s large satellite, the Theia hypothesis can also explain why Earth’s core is larger than expected for a body its size; Theia’s core and mantle fused with Earth’s core and mantle.

9. There is water on the moon!

This is in the form of ice trapped within dust and minerals on and under the surface. It has been detected in the areas of the lunar surface that are in permanent shadow and are therefore very cold, enabling the ice to survive.

The water on the moon was likely delivered to the surface by comets. It was 1976 when Russia claimed they were the first country to discover water on the moon. It happened, Russia said, in the Luna 24 mission that reportedly found water.

10. The moon has quakes too!

They are not called earthquakes but moonquakes. They are caused by the gravitational influence of the Earth. Unlike quakes on Earth that last only a few minutes at most, moonquakes can last up to half an hour. They are much weaker than earthquakes though.

The moonquakes are produced as a result of meteoroids hitting the surface or by the gravitational pull of the earth squeezing and stretching the moon’s interior, in a similar way to the moon’s tidal pull on Earth’s oceans.

11. The moon has only been walked on by 12 people

A photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon y an Unknown author – Wikimedia commons

The first man to set foot on the moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission since then the moon has only been visited by unmanned vehicles.

To get to the moon, a spacecraft must leave Earth’s gravity well; currently, the only practical means to go to the moon is by the use of a rocket. Unlike airborne vehicles such as balloons and jets, a rocket can continue accelerating in the vacuum outside the atmosphere.

12. A person weighs much less on the moon

The moon has much weaker gravity than Earth, due to its smaller mass, so you would weigh about 16.5% of your weight on Earth. This is why the lunar astronauts could leap and bound so high in the air.

Earth-orbiting astronauts are weightless for the same reasons that riders of a free-falling amusement park ride or a free-falling elevator are weightless. They are weightless because there is no external contact force pushing or pulling upon their body. In each case, gravity is the only force acting upon their body.

13. During the 1950s the USA considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the moon

The secret project was during the height cold war known as A Study of Lunar Research Flights or Project A119 and was meant as a show of strength at a time they were lagging in the space race.

By 1969, the United States had achieved a clear victory in the Space Race with the success of the Apollo 11 moon mission. In December of that year, Apollo scientist Gary Latham suggested detonating a nuclear device on the moon to facilitate research into its geological makeup.

14. Composition of the moon’s atmosphere presents a mystery of its own

The moon’s atmosphere is made up of argon, helium, neon, sodium, polonium, potassium and randon. However, scientists still debate why it does not have oxygen and nitrogen like other atmospheres.

Strangely enough, the moon’s crust has both of these elements along with magnesium, hydrogen and carbon. Until now scientists have not figured out why these elements are present on its surface but not its atmosphere.

15. The moon has a magnetic field

One of the little-known facts about the moon is that it has a magnetic field. However, it is very weak compared to the Earth. The moon’s magnetic field measures less than 0.2 nT, whereas the Earth’s magnetic field averages 45,000 nT.

Amazingly evidence collected from manned missions to the moon shows that the ancient moon had a magnetic field stronger than that of the earth. Because of these findings, scientists believe that the moon’s core cooled and solidified the field weakened until it reached the current level.

16. Jules Verne wrote one of the most famous stories about the moon

The French novelist Jules Verne published “From the Earth to the Moon in France in 1865. The plot centres on building a cannon that would fire a shell at the moon, with travellers sitting inside the shell for the journey. The story then followed a lengthy process which involved a lot of drama, even more so when building and firing it.

In the end, the cannon was successfully built and fired, with the novel ending on a cliffhanger. Eventually, Verne describes the actual journey to the moon and their return to Earth in the novel’s sequel, Around the Moon.

17. There are other theories behind the moon’s formation

Another theory claims that the ancient Earth spun so fast that molten rock went flying, eventually forming the moon. However, scientists have dismissed this theory as prehistoric evidence shows no record of Earth rotating first enough to support the theory.

Another theory suggests that the moon is a dwarf planet like pluto, getting caught as a satellite after drifting too close to the Earth. Scientists also dismiss this theory, as it requires the ancient Earth to have a thicker atmosphere than the evidence supports.

18. The moon’s atmosphere was once thicker

In 2017, NASA discovered that the ancient moon’s atmosphere used to be much thicker. With frequent volcanic activity and a powerful magnetic field, the early moon’s atmosphere had enough elements to bulk itself up. In time, the loss of volcanic activity and the weakening of the moon’s magnetic field allowed the solar wind to strip the atmosphere away.

On average, around 5 tons of cometary dust hit the moon every single day. This, in turn, constantly keeps the moon shrouded with a very thin cloud of dust. Scientists estimate its total mass at around 120 kg, rising to 100KM above the Lunar surface.

19. Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon in 1969

Launched on July 16th, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission made its historic landing on July 20th. With the American flag in hand, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. This also made way for the historic remark, “One small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.”

Around 500 million people watched the moment live on Earth, making it the largest-ever audience for a TV broadcast at the time. This is one of the most admirable facts about the moon.

20. Astronomers are also very interested in the development of the lunar surface

The moon’s extremely thin atmosphere and lack of human development would make any telescopes built on the moon very accurate. In particular, the lack of light pollution and limited radio use makes building optical and radio telescopes on the moon a very promising idea.

The extreme optical polar craters also offer scientists much promise as sites for future infrared telescopes—one of the most progressive facts about the moon.

Surface construction refers to short-term plans that will address the problems of the future settlements’ radiation exposure and vulnerability to asteroid and comet impacts. In the long term, underground construction solves both problems but is also more expensive and complex to build.

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