The giant impact theory says that initially the Earth did not contain the moon. At some point of time, a planet or a mass larger than Mars struck the Earth giving a great blow. As a result, the body mass and a piece of the earth vaporized. The resulting vaporized particles combined to form moonlets and it started orbiting the earth forming the moon.
The rocks in the moon were analyzed and the age of the moon is found to be 4.5 billion years, very close to the age of the earth. Moon is very near to earth at a distance of 384,000 km and weighs only one-eighth of the earth's mass. One side of the moon is permanently turned towards the earth.
The interesting fact about moon is the low gravitational pull. It is just one-sixth of the earth's gravitational pull. Moon orbits the earth by the gravitational power of the earth just as the earth orbits the sun by the gravitational power of the sun. When you weight 132 pounds on earth, you will weigh only 22 pounds on moon. The gravitational pull of the moon on earth causes the ocean tides here. It has a stronger influence on those parts of the earth that is closer to the moon and you can see two tides per day in the earth because of this effect.
Since the moon has no atmosphere, it is not livable. The surface of the moon is covered with a mixture of debris and fine dust called the regolith. Moon contains carters, basins and maria. The dark spots of the moon that are seen from the earth are made of basalt, which is a very dense material.
The first person to land on the moon is Mr. Neil Armstrong during the year 1969. Along with him, Edwin buzz also landed the moon. The U.S flag was deployed during their visit. As there is no wind and water in the moon, the footsteps laid by the astronauts will stay there for atleast 10 million years.
You can see different phases of the moon from the earth. Actually, the moon does not change its brightness. The different phases are seen because of the differences in the angles from which the bright part of the moon is visible for people on earth. Moon does not have its own light. It reflects the sun's light and hence the moon's phase is determined by the illumination of the sun. New moon can be seen when moon is in the same direction as the sun and full moon can be seen when the entire visible part of the moon is illuminated by the sun. The new moon and the full moon alternate in two weeks.
People say that the half moon is more beautiful than the full moon. However, moon is always an admiration for people on earth for the bright milk white color it emits during the dark night. More and more spacecrafts are being sent to moon to study about the characteristics of the moon.
As the technology is developing, moon tours will frequent in the future days.The moon is used today to work out peoples horoscopes. They can now receive free daily horoscopes and have them emailed to them daily. |
