Article by nicho fortenelli and nick gennarelli
Table of contents Effectes on the earth page 3 Orbit page 4
Phases page 5 Size and distance from earth page 6 Missions page 7
How the moon was formed page 8 Postcard page 9
Bibliography page 10
Effects on the earth
ď‚— The gravitational attraction that the Moon exerts on Earth is
the cause of tides in the sea. The tidal flow period is synchronized to the Moon's orbit around Earth, but the phase isn't. The tidal bulges on Earth, caused by the Moon's gravity, are carried ahead of the apparent position of the Moon by the Earth's rotation, in part because of the friction of the water as it slides over the ocean bottom and into or out of bays and estuaries.
The Moon completes its orbit around the earth in approximately 27.3 days (a sidereal month ). The Earth and Moon orbit about their barycentre(common centre of mass), which lies about 4700 km from Earth's centre (about three quarters of the Earth's radius). On average, the Moon is at a distance of about 385000 km from the centre of the Earth, which corresponds to about 60 Earth radii.
phases
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 one-half 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 increasing. Full Moon - The Moon's illuminated side is facing the Earth. The Moon appears to be completely illuminated by direct sunlight. Waning 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 one-half illuminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is illuminated is decreasing.
Size and from ď‚— The Moon has a distance solid iron-rich inner core with aearth radius of 240 kilometers and a fluid outer core primarily made of liquid iron with a radius of roughly 300 kilometers. The total distance between the Earth and moon is 363,300 km; while at the apogee the distance increases up to 405,500 km.
Missions The first ever US probe to escape the gravity of Earth was the
Pioneer probe. Predecessor to the infamous Pioneer's 10 and 11, the Pioneer 4 probe was sent to orbit the Moon in August of 1958. The king of all Moon missions is the Apollo Space Program. Unlike the conspiracy theorists, we DID land on the Moon and walked on the face of it. Any statement against that fact is an insult to the ingenuity of human intelligence - and that is all I will say about that. Prior to the Apollo missions, the Ranger program (Rangers 7, 8 and 9) were designed to take high resolution images of the Moon. Much of the images we see in texts is the result of these probes.
How the moon was formed Several mechanisms have been proposed for the
Moon's formation 4.527 ± 0.010 billion years ago, some 30–50 million years after the origin of the Solar System.These included the fission of the Moon from the Earth's crust through centrifugal force which would require too great an initial spin of the Earth, the gravitational capture of a preformed Moon, which would require an unfeasibly extended atmosphere of the Earth to dissipate the energy of the passing Moon.