The
Moon
CONTENTS 01-02 Introduction 03-04 The Moon Phases 05-06 Moon and The Earth 07-08 Lunar Crates 09-10 Solar Eclipse 11-12 Moon Landing 13-14 Ocean Tides 15-16 Conspiracy Theory
Introduction The Moon is thought to have formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago, not long after Earth. Although there have been several guesses for its origin in the past, the current most widely accepted
01
explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body. The moon is the earths only natural satellite.
02
03
Waning Crescent
New Moon
SUN
Waxing Crescent
04
Waning Gibbous
Waxing Gibbous
First Quarter
decreases. So the waning gibbous phase occurs next. Following the third quarter is the waning crescent, which wanes until the light is completely gone -- a new moon. The shadow on the moon is not from the earth, but is in fact its own shadow.
Full Moon
These are the key eight phases of the moon as we see it. After the new moon, the sunlight portion is increasing, but less than half, so it is waxing crescent. After the first quarter, the sunlit portion is still increasing, but now it is more than half, so it is waxing gibbous. After the full moon (maximum illumination), the light continually
Moon Phases
Third Crescent
EARTH
The Moon and The Earth The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic matter that fill between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. It is the most luminous object in the sky after the Sun. Although it appears a very bright white, its surface is actually dark, the light it reflects is that from Earth. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have, since ancient times, made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, calendars, art and mythology. The Moon’s current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of Earth, causes it to appear almost the same size in the sky as the Sun, allowing it to cover the Sun nearly precisely in total solar eclipses. This matching of apparent visual size is a coincidence.
05
06
07
Lunar Craters Lunar craters are craters on Earth’s Moon. The Moon’s surface is saturated with craters, almost all of which were formed by impacts. Because of the Moon’s lack of water, and atmosphere, or tectonic plates, there is little erosion, and craters are found that exceed two billion years in age. The age of large craters is determined by the number of smaller craters contained within it, older craters generally accumulating more small, contained craters. The smallest craters found have been microscopic in size, found in rocks returned to Earth from the Moon. The largest crater called such is about 181 miles across in diameter, located near the lunar South Pole. However, it is believed that many of the lunar maria were formed by giant impacts, with the resulting depression filled by upwelling lava .
08
Solar Eclipse As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse is a type of eclipse that occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks (“occults�) the Sun. This can happen only at new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth in an alignment referred to as syzygy. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses only part of the Sun is obscured.
09
An eclipse is a natural phenomenon. Nevertheless, in some ancient and modern cultures, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as bad omens. A total solar eclipse can be frightening to people who are unaware of its astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear during the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.
10
Moon Landing Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the Moon surface. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth. Broadcast on live TV to a world-wide audience, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and described the event as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.� We now have the technology to study the Moon from Earth due to robotics. This saves the risk of sending humans there and back, as it can be extremely dangerous!
11
12
Ocean Tides The moons gravitational pull controls our ocean tides. The moon has gravitational power, just like Earth does, and the moon’s gravitational force exerts a powerful pull on the oceans on both sides of our planet. This causes the oceans to bulge away from the Earth. The ocean facing the moon bulges toward the moon, while the ocean on the other side of the Earth bulges in the opposite direction -- this is caused by the Earth actually pulling away from the ocean and toward the moon. The rotation of the Earth, along with the moon’s gravitational pull, causes ocean tides to change.
13
High tide occurs when a body of water is facing the moon and the moon is pulling the water toward it with its gravity. High tide also occurs when an ocean is facing directly away from the moon, or when the moon is pulling the mass of the Earth away from the water. When the moon is neither overhead nor on the opposite side of the Earth, a body of water settles back into low tide. This sequence of high tide and low tide generally happens twice a day everywhere on the planet, approximately every 12 hours and 25 minutes, as the Earth rotates and the moon orbits. Each tide lasts about six hours.
14
Conspiracy Theory The Spaceship Moon Theory, is a conspiracy that claims the Earth’s moon may actually be an alien spacecraft. The hypothesis was put forth by two members of the then Soviet Academy of Sciences, Michael Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, in a July 1970 article entitled “Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?”. Vasin and Shcherbakov’s thesis was that the Moon is a hollowed-out planetoid created by unknown beings with technology far
15
superior to any on Earth. Huge machines would have been used to melt rock and form large cavities within the Moon, with the resulting molten lava spewing out onto the Moon’s surface. The Moon would therefore consist of a hull-like inner shell and an outer shell made from metallic rocky slag. For reasons unknown, the “Spaceship Moon” was then placed into orbit around the Earth. What do you think? Could it be true?
16