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Beautiful and mysterious, peaceful and serene, the moon is the brightest object in the night
sky.
Jupiter and Saturn have more than sixty moons each. Neptune has thirteen moons. Even Mars
has two moons. But the Earth, our planet, only has one moon, our nearest neighbor in
space.
Even though the moon is close to us when compared to other planets, it is still very, very far
away. The moon is about 239 thousand miles or 384 thousand kilometers away. You would
have to travel all the way around the Earth nine and a half times to go the same distance
as the space between the Earth and the Moon.
The moon is much smaller than the Earth. If the Earth was hollow, about fifty moons could
fit inside. Because it is so much smaller than the Earth, the moon's gravity is much
weaker. This means that if you were to visit the moon, you would weigh much less than you
do on earth, only about 1/6th of your current weight. That means that if a giraffe was on
the moon, it would only weigh as much as a tiger on earth!
Although we can see it shining brightly at night, the moon does not have any light of
its own. Instead, the light of the moon is really reflected light from the sun that bounces
off of the rocky, dusty surface of the moon so we can see it from Earth. Because of the
way that the moon orbits the earth, sometimes the sun lights up different parts of it. This
makes the moon appear to change its shape from one night to the next. These different
shapes of the moon are called its phases: it takes about 29 days for the moon to go
through all of its phases and begin them again.
Because it is so big, and bright, and close to us, the moon has always attracted the attention
of curious people, but in the mid-20th century, people around the world began to be more interested
in space. For the first time, humans launched rockets that were able to escape Earth's gravity
and atmosphere and explore what lay beyond. After a lot of work, and many tests, humans
were able to visit the moon for the first time.
On July 20, 1969, the astronauts of America's Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. On July
21, Neil Armstrong became the first person to step upon the moon's surface. The moon
has no atmosphere, which means there was no air for them to breathe. The moon also has
extreme temperatures - boiling hot in the sun and freezing cold in the shadows. For
this reason, the astronauts needed special suits and equipment to protect them on the
moon, to keep them the right temperature and allow them to breathe.
No one has visited the moon for more than 40 years, but the footprints made by the astronauts
who walked on its surface are still there. That is because there is no wind or water
on the moon to wash the footprints away. Unless a meteorite hits the moon and smashes them,
those footprints might last for hundreds or even thousands of years.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about the moon today; goodbye till next time!