The Moon and It’s Wonders By: Ethan Nooner and Kelsey Harris
Table of contents
3. How the Moon Was Formed 4. Composition of the Moon 5. Size – Distance from Earth 6. Phases of the Moon 7. Orbit of the Moon 8. Effects on Earth 9. Missions to the Moon 10. Missions to the Moon 11. Crossword Puzzle
How the Moon Was Formed Five billion years ago there was no sun, nor earth, nor moon. All that existed of our galaxy was a cloud of interstellar dust and gas. It consisted mostly of helium and hydrogen, and buts of dust mixed together with tiny grains of heavier material that had remained from dying stars. The cloud was lumpy having an area within, a denser collection of material than others. Since the gravitational force exerted by this relatively high-density area was correspondingly greater than those surrounding it. Consequently, it would tend to pull more material toward it, further increasing its mass. As a result, it’s gravitational force yet increases and even more matter pulled into the thickening cloud. Eventually, the most massive region of the cloud would begin pulling everything toward it and the entire cloud collapse. That caused two things to happen. First, the amount of material in the center would grow enormous, creating an increasingly large, dense sphere in the midst of space. As its density increases, so does the temperature. You can see this same effect in everyday examples; for instance an air pump for tires, inflate a tire by hand, and the pump becomes warm. This occurs because when air compresses and becomes denser, temperature will increase. The second thing that would happen, like an ice skater that draws in her arms as she goes into a spin, the cloud’s rotation speeds up as it decreases in size and increases in density.
Composition of the Moon What is the moon made of? Start by looking at its surface. There are light areas and dark areas. The dark areas are called seas, but they do not contain water. The seas are flat regions, whereas the light areas are rugged and are higher on average. For this reason, they are also called highlands. Across the whole surface, craters caused by meteoric impacts are evident. The craters are much more enhanced and frequent within the light areas. In the years from 1969 to 1972 the moon has been explored by man. Astronauts brought back to Earth some samples of lunar soil, so it has been possible to analyze and date those rocks. It has been found that the younger lunar rocks are the dark ones, those of the seas, and that they are 3.2 billion years old. The older ones are the light rocks of the highlands, and they are 4.6 billion years old.
Learning about the moon is fun!
Lean fun and interesting facts about the moon!
Visit your local library!
Visit moon.com for more info.
Size –Distance from Earth
The average distance between the earth and the moon is 238,857 miles (384,392 kilometers). The diameter of the moon is 3,474 km, which is about 1/4 the size diameter of Earth. The surface area is 37.9 million square km, which is smaller than Asia. So, it makes it look large in the sky, but it is really a lot smaller than Earth.
Phases of the Moon
New Moon - The moon’s unilluminated side is facing the Earth. The moon is not visible (except during a solar eclipse). Waxing Crescent - The moon appears to be partly but less than onehalf illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon’s disk that is illuminated is increasing. First Quarter - One-half of the moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon’s disk that is illuminated is increasing. Waxing Gibbous – The moon appears to be more than one-half but not fully illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon’s disk that is illuminated is decreasing. Last Quarter – One-half of the moon appears to be illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon’s disk that is illuminated is decreasing. Waning Crescent - The moon appears to be partly but less than onehalf illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the moon’s disk that is illuminated is decreasing.
Orbit of the Moon The moon takes about 27.3 days to complete one orbit around the Earth. Earth and the moon actually orbit a common center of gravity. This place is about 4,700 km from the center of the Earth. In other words, the Earth wobbles back and forth because of the orbit of the moon. Some scientists have even proposed that the Earth and the moon are actually a double planet because of their relationship, but this would only be the case if the common center of gravity was outside the surface of the Earth. The orbit of the moon is about 385,000 km from the Earth on average. Like the planets in the Solar System, the orbit of the moon isn’t circular; it actually follows an elliptical path around the Earth. At its closest point, called perihelion, the moon is 364,397 km from the Earth. At its most distant point, called aphelion, the moon is 406,731 km from the Earth. You might have heard that the moon is slowly drifting away from the Earth. Although the moon is tidally locked to the Earth, presenting the same face to our planet, the Earth isn’t tidally locked. But in about 50 bi9llion years from now, the moon will complete an orbit once every 47 days, and it will remain in exactly the same place in the sky. One-half of the Earth will be able to see the moon, and it will be hidden from the other half.
Effects on Earth
Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides. Tides are the periodic rise and falling of large bodies of water. Winds and currents move the surface water causing waves. The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side). Ocean levels fluctuate daily as the sun, moon and Earth interact. As the moon travels around the Earth and as they, together, travel around the sun, the combined gravitational forces cause the world’s oceans to rise and fall. Since the Earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day.
Missions to the Moon
The Apollo missions were a series of space missions, both manned and unmanned, flown by NASA between 1961 and 1975. They culminated with a series of manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972.
The Apollo program used four types of launch vehicles: Little Joe II – unmanned suborbital launch escape system development. Saturn I – unmanned suborbital and orbital hardware development. Saturn IB – preparatory unmanned missions, and Apollo 7, the first manned (Earth orbit) mission. Saturn V – unmanned and manned Earth orbit and lunar missions.
Here are some of the manned missions to the moon. Saturn IB - AS-204, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and roger B. Chaffee Saturn IB – AS-205, Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, Donn Eisele and Water Cunningham Saturn V – AS-503, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William A. Anders Saturn V – AS-504, James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart Saturn V – AS-505, Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan Saturn V – AS-506, Neil Armstrong, MichaelColins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Saturn V – AS-507, Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean
Saturn V – AS-508, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise Saturn V – AS-509, Alan B. Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell Saturn V – AS-510, David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin Saturn V – AS-511, John W. Young, Ken Mattingly and Charles Duke Saturn V – AS-512, Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison H. “Jack” Schmitt, PhD
Here are some unmanned missions to the moon: SA – 4 SA – 5 A – 101 A – 102 A – 103 A – 104 A – 105
Moon Crossword Puzzle
5 1
6
4 3
7 2
8
Questions: 1. _______ billion years ago there was no sun, no earth and no moon. 2. Dark areas on the moon. 3. Light areas on the moon. 4. The moon is 238,857 ___________ from the earth. 5. The phase of the moon when the unilluminated side is facing the earth. 6. The moon takes 27.3 ____________ to complete one orbit around the earth. 7. _________________ are created because the earth and the moon are attracted to each other. 8. The _____________ missions were a series of space missions, both manned and unmanned, flown by NASA between 1961 and 1975.