Amazing facts about The Moon

What created the Moon? And what are moonquakes?  The Moon is Earth sole natural satellite and nearest large celestial body. Known since prehistoric times, it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Moon is a dusty ball of rock, measuring 3,476km in diameter – that’s roughly a quarter of the size of Earth.

1-    How far away is the Moon?

The Moon is farther away from Earth than people often think. A good ballpark number to remember is that the Moon is about a quarter of a million miles away (that is, 250,000 miles), or about 400 thousand kilometers. It's such a vast distance that you could just about fit the other seven major planets into the space between the two worlds. Astronauts from three of NASA's Apollo missions, including Apollo 11, placed special reflectors on the lunar surface that are still used to determine the Moon's distance with extreme precision. In fact, they've revealed that the Moon is moving away from Earth by about 1.5 inches (nearly 4 centimeters) per year.

 

2-    What color is the Moon?

The Moon tends to look sort of orange or amber colored when it's rising or setting, and more whitish when it's high overhead. But it might surprise you that it looks different up close. The orangey colors are caused by the Moon's light passing through Earth's atmosphere to reach your eyes. And the bright whitish appearance (would call it "eggshell," or maybe "bone"?) results from its surface being brightly illuminated by the Sun. (The Moon doesn't emit its own light – it reflects light from the Sun.)Up close, the Moon's surface is mostly shades of gray, in particular the color of old, well-worn asphalt.

 

 

3-    The Moon is Earth's only permanent natural satellite.

It is the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. The Moon is the second densest satellite among those whose densities are known anyway. The first densest is Jupiter's satellite Io. 

 

4-    How big is the Moon?

This one's another easy approximation to remember: The Moon is about one-fourth (or a quarter) the size of Earth in width. Put another way, Earth is about four times wider than the Moon. That’s just about as wide as the United States or Europe.

 

5-    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 (volcanic ‘maria’) that fill the spaces between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. The Moon’s surface is actually 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, body tides, and the slight lengthening of the day.​

 

6-    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 began forming about 4.5 billion years ago. The Moon is drifting away from the Earth; The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from our planet every year. From Earth, both the Sun and the Moon look about same size. In fact the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but also 400 times closer to Earth.

 

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 also 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 nevertheless it is a measurable effect, with the solid surface of the Earth moving by several centimeters with each tide.

 

8-    The Moon has quakes too

They're 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.

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 on 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.

 

10-                       What are the dark areas on the Moon?

One of the main things you notice when observing the Moon is that it has a bright and dark areas across its surface. (Everybody's familiar with the "Man in the Moon," right?) The dark areas are known as "mare" (pronounced MAH-ray), which is the Latin word for seas. The lunar mare is volcanic basins created in the aftermath of ancient impacts billions of years ago. After the impacts, the craters filled with lava, which eventually cooled to form smooth, dark plains. Dark lava rock of this kind, known as basalt (pronounced bah-SALT), is also found here on Earth. One of the most famous mares is the Sea of Tranquility. This was the landing site chosen for Apollo 11, in part because it was fairly smooth and level.

11-                       The Moon has gravity.

Like Earth, the Moon has gravity (the force that pulls things towards the ground). But the Moon’s gravity is weaker, only one sixth of the Earth’s gravity, in fact. That means you’d weigh much less if you were to stand on the Moon.

12-                       The temperature on the Moon varies from super-hot to super cold! When the Sun hits its surface, temperatures can reach a scorching 127°C. But when the Sun ‘goes down’, temperatures can plummet to around -153°C.