25 Facts about the Moon
Introduction about Moon:
In the solar system, the moon is the 5th largest satellite. There are many facts about the moon but here we will discuss only 25 facts about the moon.
1. Formation of the Moon:
According to the giant impact theory, the moon is form due to the collision of the Theia with the early earth. Theia was a rocky body. In diameter Theia has a diameter equals to half the diameter of the Earth. 4.5 billion years ago, Theia collide with the earth and this effect in ejecting a huge amount of particles into the orbit around the Earth, which later formed the Moon, and produced enough heat to form magma oceans. Now, some computer events made it possible to observe the formation of moon and shows that the moon is formed by 80% material of the Theia.
2. Earth’s only satellite:
The moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. A satellite is a body that orbits around another body and moon is the only natural satellite that orbits around Earth. Neither Mercury nor Venus have any moons at all. Earth has one and Mars has 2 small moons. It is one of the most promising fact out of 25 facts of the moon. As it is the 5th largest satellite in the solar system, it is larger than any of the dwarf planets. Moon is the largest satellite of the planet in relative to the other planets. Together with Earth, it makes an Earth-Moon satellite system. In diameter, it is one-quarter of the Earth’s diameter.
3. Earth always sees the same side of the moon:
It is one of the most amazing fact from the 25 facts of the moon that Earth always sees the same side of the moon. Why is it so? We can explain it in simple words, moon is rotating as well as orbiting in the solar system. Moon takes time to revolve around the earth. It is the time which stays the moon to be in one position. Moon takes the amount of time of about 27 days to complete its revolution on its axis and the same time to circle the earth. That’s why we see the same side of the moon.
4. Phases of the moon:
Moon seems to be in different shapes because of its phases. Moon faces different phases due the relative motion of the moon, sun and the earth. It changes from new moon to the full moon by growing and shrinking process. The rear side of the Moon is illuminated and the side that faces Earth is dark if the Moon is in its orbit between the Earth and the Sun. We refer to this as a new Moon. The near side of the Moon will be completely illuminated when it is opposite the Earth from the Sun, which is known as a full Moon.
5. A dark surface:
Moon has actually a dark surface. Its surface is made of volcanic flows, impact craters, and extinct volcanoes. The near side of the Moon is the side that is facing us. There are two sections: the 1st one is Lunar Highlands, which are light, and the 2nd one is called a Maria, which are darker. The moon we see for the earth seems to be in white color but the surface of the moon is a mixture of dark grey, black, white and a bit of orange color. Also the surface of the moon is hard and rough due to the collision.
6. Tidiness of the Earth due to moon:
The gravitational pull of the moon on Earth results in predictable changes in sea level, or this is called tidiness. Tides also occur, but considerably less frequently, in lakes, the atmosphere, and the Earth’s crust. Low tides occur when water levels fall, whereas high tides occur when water rises from the surface of the Earth. However, much as it does with water, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth causes a tide of rock to rise and fall. Although the effect is not as dramatic as it is with the seas, it is nevertheless measurable since each tide causes the solid surface of the Earth to move by several centimeters.
7. Quakes on the moon:
Quake is the shaking and vibrating due to instability of the things. Earthquakes happens due to the vibration of the rocks. Just like earthquake, moon quakes also happens. Moonquakes are caused by meteorites striking the moon’s surface or by the Earth’s gravitational force compressing and stretching the moon’s interior, much like the moon’s tidal effect on Earth’s oceans. Deep moonquakes occur over 700 km below the surface of the moon and occur quite frequently, typically on a period of about 27 days. The tidal attraction of Earth on the moon is generally thought to be the cause of them.
8. Presence of water on the moon:
Yes, it is the fact that water is too present on the moon. NASA acknowledged in August 2018 that M3 had demonstrated the presence of water ice on the Moon’s surface at the poles. On October 26, 2020, NASA announced that there is water on the Moon’s illuminated surface. The water present on the moon is the lunar water. China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander spacecraft first time detect that there is water present on the moon. The water on the moon comes from the asteroids and comets that struck the moon in the past. Out of the 600 billion kilograms of water ice is present on the lunar poles. Estimating this, there is too much water present on the moon that fill up about 240,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
9. Size of the moon:
The moon has a radius of 1.079.6 miles, a diameter of 2,159.2 miles and a circumference of 6,783.5 miles. The surface area of the moon is 14.6 million square miles. Mass of the moon is 7.35e22 kilogram. In comparison with the earth, according to the NASA, the moon is less than a third of the width of the earth. NASA states the comparison of Earth and the Moon as “If Earth were a size of a nickel then the moon would be about as big as the size of a coffee bean”. The density of the moon is 3.34 grams per cubic centimeter which is about 60% of earth’s density.
10. Lunar rainbows:
A rainbow is a meteorological effect that appears in the sky as a spectrum of colors as a result of light reflection, refraction, and dispersion in water droplets. Lunar rainbow are also called Moonbow or Moon rainbow. A moonbow is a rainbow that is created by moonlight rather than bright sunlight. This unusual occurrence happens at night when the moonlight reveals atmospheric water drops that are falling. Sometimes the drops fall as rain, while other times the needed water is provided by the mist from a waterfall. These rainbows happen less frequently than 10% of the time than typical rainbows. Moonbows are extremely rare since they require a few extra conditions in order to form.
11. Mountains on the moon:
Here the question is “are there any mountains exist on the surface of the moon?” and the answer is, Yes, the mountains are present on the moon. Mountains are created on the Moon in a matter of minutes due to the enormous quantities of energy generated when comets and asteroids strike the surface at speeds greater than 16 km/s. Mons Piton and Mons Pico, two of the moon’s most magnificent single mountain summits, are located on the deserted floor of the Mare Imbrium. The Mons Piton soars 7,380 feet (2,250 m) above the surrounding plain and has a base that is 16 miles (25 km) in diameter.
12. Climate at the surface of the moon:
The Moon has essentially little atmosphere, thus it cannot retain heat or act as a surface insulator. The Moon’s surface reaches 127°C in full sunlight, which is far over the boiling point of water. The moon has unusually scorching at daytime temperatures of roughly 100 degrees Celsius. The lunar surface can drop to — 173 degrees Celsius at night. Because the moon of Earth lacks an atmosphere, there is a large difference in temperature throughout the day and night. The lunar daytime lasts for over two Earth weeks since one “day” on the moon lasts around 28 Earth days.
13. Asteroids and comets:
Small, stony objects called asteroids that orbit the Sun. A comet is a small, delicate body with an uneven shape that is made up of a mixture of non-volatile frozen gases and grains. Always travelling far from the Sun, comets. Most people simply think of comets as small, city- or mountain-sized mounds of flammable ices and rocks, which are infinitely common across the solar system. The moon’s surface is covered in numerous impact craters left behind by asteroids and comets that have been slamming into it for a very long time. These craters have been beautifully maintained because the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere or weather.
14. Internet on the moon:
After years of trial and error, MIT and NASA researchers came up with a laser-based telescope system that may be able to provide lightning-fast Internet to astronauts on the moon, those aboard the International Space Station, and any other receivers out there in the expanse of space. The most interesting fact from 25 facts of the moon is that the internet speed on the surface of the earth is too good and high of about 19mbps. Remarkable download and upload rates can be achieved between Earth and the moon. Given the great distance that the information must travel, a 19 Mb/s upload speed is amazing. However, the download transfer rate is even faster, at an astounding 622 Mb/s, which is more than 4,000 times faster than the current radio frequency transmission times.
15. Moons on the other planets:
It seems strange for a person living on earth that there is not only one moon which he/she is seeing but other planets have also their own moons. Except for Mercury and Venus, all of the planets in the solar system have moons. Jupiter has 67 moons, Saturn has 62 moons, Uranus has 27 moons, Neptune has 14 moons, and Mars has 2 while Earth has only one moon. Pluto and other dwarf planets have small’s moons. Every moon on each planet has their different names. Only the Earth’s moon named as “The moon”, because it has only one moon.
16. Shape of the moon:
Everything in the universe has a specific shape. The moon is always a sphere, despite appearing to alter shape. Additionally, even if the moon’s apparent size and position vary from night to night. The “moonlight” we perceive is actually the Sun’s light reflecting off the lunar surface rather than the Moon itself emitting or giving out light. Therefore, as the Moon revolves the Earth, the Sun illuminates various regions of it, giving the impression that the Moon is changing shape. The first/third quarter, waxing/waning crescent, full moon, waxing/waning gibbous, and new moon are the five lunar phases that have been taken into account in the analyses. In all these 5 phases, the moon changes its shape.
17. Map of the moon:
Scientists from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, working with NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute, have for the first time comprehensively mapped and uniformly categorized the entire lunar surface. Thomas Harriot, a British astronomer, was the first to depict the moon’s surface as it appears through a telescope. The charting of the Moon’s surface and the analysis of its topography constitute its topography. It has been measured using stereo image analysis and laser altimetry, as well as information from several missions. Too find out the Google map of the moon, Activate Google Earth. Look at the symbols directly above the picture of the Earth. Select Moon from the dropdown menu after clicking the Saturn-like icon. Google Moon will be reached by doing this.
18. Blue Moon:
On the surface of Earth, two moons can appear in some months. A blue moon is the second moon in this scenario. In reality, the moon phases span 29.5 days, hence it only takes 354 days for 12 lunar cycles to complete. A 13th full moon is thus noticed inside a calendar year about every 2.5 years. The 13th full moon is known as the Blue Moon because it deviates from the usual naming convention. According to the expression “once in a blue moon,” blue moons can happen very regularly in terms of astronomy. Blue Moons occur once every two to three years, according to NASA.
19. Orange rocks on the moon:
On the moon, there are orange rocks. Harrison Schmidt, an astronaut, first discovered a distinctive color patch next to Apollo 17’s Taurus-Littrow landing site in 1972, and that is how the mystery of the orange rocks on the moon began. A little portion of the orange soil was collected by the astronauts for later analysis on Earth. The orange dirt was created during an old fire mountain, according to lunar geologists. The black particles are the mineral ilmenite, and the orange particles are volcanic glass.
20. Largest crater on the moon:
A crater is a hollowed-out or bowl-shaped area left behind by the impact of a meteorite, volcanic eruption, or explosion. A huge region of rock is compressed or forced downward by the high-speed impact of a big meteorite. The rock is crushed by the pressure. But almost immediately after the strike, the crushed rock bounces back. Huge volumes of debris are thrown into the air, and the spot where the rock was creates a broad, circular crater. Of all the planets in the solar system, the moon has the greatest crater. The name of it is South Pole-Aitken. It is situated on the far side of the moon and has a diameter of roughly 1,550 miles (2,500 km). The Bailly Crater, on the other hand, is the name of the largest crater that can be seen from the earth’s surface. The Bailly Crater has a 183-mile diameter.
21. The earthquakes experience by the moon:
The earthquakes effecting the earth too much by destroying different parts of the earth. These earthquakes also effected the moon. Moonquakes come in two varieties: shallow moonquakes and profound moonquakes. Moonquakes, which originate several miles below the moon’s surface, are thought to be brought on by the Earth’s gravitational pull. Shallow moonquakes, or quakes that occur at or near the moon’s surface (20–30 kilometres below the surface), are probably brought on by the crust of the moon’s surface shifting and cracking over time as it cools and gradually shrinks, or “raisins.” Impacts from meteorites and the resulting vibrations on the moon’s surface. Deep moonquakes are due to the gravitational pull of the earth on the moon surface.
22. Playing golf on the moon:
A golf ball will go much farther on the moon because it will return to the surface more slowly due to the moon’s relatively modest surface gravity. The ball should move with a steady horizontal velocity during that time. On Earth, however, the ball’s motion is slowed down by air resistance. Alan Shepherd was the first astronaut to play golf on the moon in 1971. On February 6, 1971, Shepard used a brief segment of the Apollo 14 landing to demonstrate his pastime during a live broadcast from the lunar surface. He fired two times, describing the second shot as travelling “miles and miles.” According to fresh research from the United States Golf Association, he was exaggerating (USGA).
23. Weight on the moon:
The weight on the moon is lighter than that on the earth. Because of the gravitational pull of the moon. Weight depends on the gravitational pull of the planet. The gravitational pull of the moon is smaller as compared to that of earth. On the Moon, you would weigh 16.5 percent more than you would on Earth. In other words, on the Moon, you would only weigh 16.5 kg if you were 100 kg on Earth. Imagine if you tipped the scales at 200 pounds for you imperial people. On the Moon, you would only weigh 33 pounds. The above example shows the smaller weight of a person on moon as compared to the earth.
24. Flag on the surface of moon:
A kit called the Lunar Flag Assembly (LFA) contained a US flag intended to be raised on the Moon during the Apollo missions. There are now six flags on the moon, one for each US Apollo mission. The flag from Apollo 11 was unfortunately knocked down by the exhaust when the landing module launched again because it was too close to it. On telescopic staffs and horizontal bars made of one-inch anodized aluminium tubes, nylon flags were suspended. More than 50 years after the US initially erected the Stars and Stripes there, China has now placed its flag there as well. The five-star Red Flag remains stationary on the windless surface of the moon in images from China’s National Space Administration.
25. Lunar Eclipse:
Eclipses can be solar or lunar in nature. The Moon is hidden by Earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse. The Moon obscures the Sun during a solar eclipse. Only during a full Moon, when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are all in alignment, does a lunar eclipse take place. But even though it only takes the Moon 29.5 days to orbit Earth and go from full Moon to full moon, there are typically just three lunar eclipses each year named as a total lunar eclipse, a penumbral lunar eclipse and a partial lunar eclipse. The Chinese used to make loud noises during solar eclipses in the past because they believed the Sun was about to be sucked up by a huge dragon. They thought that by making those loud noises, the dragon would flee.
Summary:
Everything in the universe has a story of its creation and has many facts. In the universe, moon is the planet and it has many facts. Out of many, above are the most 25 facts of the moon discussed.
