The Moon

By Laura Whitehead

Formation of the Moon

At some point in Earth's early history, a rogue planet,
larger than Mars, struck the Earth in a great,
glancing blow. Instantly, most of the rogue body
and a sizable chunk of Earth were vaporized. The
cloud rose to above 13,700 miles altitude, where it
condensed into innumerable solid particles that
orbited the Earth as they aggregated into ever
larger moonlets, which eventually combined to
form the moon.

Moon Facts
The Moon is slowly drifting away
The Moon looks the same size as the Sun
The Moon is orbiting at about 2,300 miles per hour.
The Moon makes 1 rotation and completes a
revolution around the Earth every 27 days, 7 hours,
and 43 minutes.
The Moon is the 5th largest natural satellite in the
Solar System

The Moon and Earth

The moon, the Earth's only natural satellite, is about
238,900 miles away from Earth. It is the brightest light
in the night sky, yet it does not give off its own light,
but reflects the sunlight.
Only 59% of the moon's surface is visible from earth.
From Earth, we always see the same side of the
moon; the other side is always hidden.
The rise and fall of tides on Earth are caused by the
moon

Moon Phases
The shape of the moon appears to change in a
repeating cycle when viewed from the Earth
because the amount of illuminated moon we see
varies, depending on the moon's position in relation
to the Earth and the sun.
We see the full moon when the sun is directly
behind us, illuminating a full hemisphere of the
moon when it is directly in front of us.
The new moon, when the moon is darkened, occurs
when the moon is almost directly between Earth
and the sun.
When a month has two full moons, the second full
moon is called a blue moon. Another definition of a
blue moon is the third full moon in any season
containing 4 total full moons.

The Surface of the Moon

The dark spots we see on the moon that create the
image of the man in the moon are actually craters
filled with basalt.
The surface of the moon has many things on it such
as craters, lava plains, mountains, and valleys.
Scientists believe the craters were formed around
3.5 to 4.5 billion years ago by meteors hitting the
moon's surface. They can be from 1 meter to 1,000
kilometer.
The Moon's temperature ranges between 123C
(253F) to 233C (-451F). It's really hot where the sun is
shining and really cold where it's not.

Gravity on the Moon

Because the force of gravity at the surface of an object
is the result of the object's mass and size, the surface
gravity of the moon is only one-sixth that of the Earth. The
force gravity exerts on a person determines the person's
weight. A man that weighs 180 pounds on Earth would
weigh only 30 pounds on the Moon. The moon's
gravitational pull on the Earth is the main cause of the
rise and fall of ocean tides. The moon's gravitational pull
causes two bulges of water on the Earth's oceansone
where ocean waters face the moon and the pull is
strongest and one where ocean waters face away from
the moon and the pull is weakest. Both bulges cause
high tides. As the Earth rotates, the bulges move around
it, one always facing the moon, the other directly
opposite. The combined forces of gravity, the Earth's
rotation, and other factors usually cause two high tides
and two low tides each day.

Man on the Moon

The moon is the only extraterrestrial body that has
ever been visited by humans. Only 12 people have
ever stepped onto the surface of the Moon. The first
space craft to send back pictures from the moon
was Luna 3 (built by the Soviet Union) in October
1959.
There is no wind or weather on the moon. The
footprints left there by the Apollo astronauts will
remain there for many years because of this.

Twelve men who have stepped

on the moon

Apollo Mission Studies

The rocks and soil brought back by Apollo missions
are extremely dry; the moon has no indigenous
water. However, the moon is bombarded by waterladen comets and meteoroids. Most of this water is
lost to space, but some is trapped in permanently
shadowed areas near both poles of the moon.
Apollo's studies suggested that the moon has only a
tiny metallic core, roughly 15 times smaller than that
of the Earth. They also believe that the core is not in
the middle, like Earth's.

Bibliography
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_facts.pht
ml
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07
/0714_040714_moonfacts.html
http://www.universetoday.com/20050/10interesting-facts-about-the-moon/
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases.p
html
http://space-facts.com/the-moon/