An Italian proverb says, “If the Sun shines on me, I care not for the Moon.”
It's a flippant remark, as the Earth’s satellite is some simple thing not worthy of consideration.
But hey, men have walked on the Moon, but they haven’t walked on the Sun.
Incidentally, my advice on this Sun-walking thing: you should try it at night, it’s
much cooler.
Anyway, I'm going to share the most interesting facts about the Moon with you; and it might
change your mind about the moon's simplicity.
1.
The existence of the moon was the result of a clash.
Scientists believe that it was formed from the debris of the Earth and another space
object which was about the size of Mars, after they ran into each other.
2.
The Moon is not an ideal sphere.
It's shaped more like an egg because of the Earth’s gravity.
3.
The Moon is the closest planet satellite to the Sun, since Mercury and Venus, which are
closer to the Sun than Earth is, don't have satellite.
Maybe they have cable.
4.
With an average diameter of 2,159 miles, the Moon is the 5th largest satellite in the Solar
system after Jupiter's satellites Ganymede, Callisto and Lo, and Saturn's Titan.
5.
We can see solar eclipses pretty often, but moon eclipses only happen once every several
hundred years.
6.
The Moon looks as if it was the same size as the Sun.
The star is about 400 times bigger than the satellite, but astonishingly, it’s also
400 times farther from us.
That’s why they seem to be equal in dimensions as viewed from the surface of Earth.
7.
Although the Moon seems really bright, its ability to reflect sunlight is 3 times less
than that of Earth.
That's why, in combined photos, they make the Moon look brighter artificially.
8.
It would take about 300,000 Moons to produce as much light at night as there is in the
afternoon.
About 206,000 of them would have to be full.
9.
The Moon is getting 1.5 inches farther away from Earth every year.
At first, it was about 14,000 miles from Earth, and now – almost 250,000.
In about 600 million years, its visual size from Earth will be so small that there will
be no full Solar eclipses.
If you’re still around then, leave me a comment below.
10.
The Moon causes high and low tides on Earth.
The gravitational influence of the Moon has this effect on the oceans.
The highest tide can be seen at full or new Moon.
11.
There are huge temperature fluctuations on the Moon.
Close to the Moon’s equator, the temperature rises from -279 F at night to +260 F in the
afternoon.
I think I’d dress in layers.
12.
One Moon day is equal to about 29 days on Earth.
It takes that long for the Sun to cross the Lunar sky.
13.
People always see the same side of the Moon.
The Earth’s gravitational field makes the Moon spin around its axis slower.
That’s why it takes the Moon the same time to rotate around its axis, as to orbit around
the Earth.
14.
It was only in 1959 that people could finally see the other side of Moon, thanks to a photo
taken by the Russian spacecraft “Luna 3”.
15.
The other side of the Moon is more mountainous than the one we see from Earth.
It can be explained by the Earth’s gravity, which made the crust on the visible side of
the Moon thinner.
16.
Craters on the Moon were left by asteroids 4.1 – 3.8 billion years ago.
They’re still visible, only because geological changes on the Moon aren’t as active as
on Earth.
17.
Craters on the Moon were first named after famous scientists, artists and researchers,
and later – after American and Russian astronauts.
18.
The greatest crater on the Moon is called Aitken, after an American astronomer, and
its diameter is 1240 miles.
In fact, it's the second-largest crater in the Solar system.
19.
There's water on the Moon, but leave your straw at home; it's all frozen in the craters
and under the ground.
20.
There are moonquakes on the surface of Moon.
They’re caused by the Earth’s gravity, and their epicenters are several miles lower
than the Moon’s surface.
21.
The Moon’s gravity is only 1/6th that of the Earth’s.
If your weight here is 100 pounds, you’ll only weigh 17 pounds standing on the Moon’s
surface.
You would also be able to walk a distance 6 times longer and carry a weight 6 times
heavier there.
22.
Though it's easier to walk, it's more dangerous too.
An astronaut's foot, in a heavy spacesuit, might sink into the Moon’s ground up to
6 inches deep.
Long-distance jumps can be uncontrolled and dangerous, as the Moon’s surface is full
of deep craters.
23.
Because of the low gravity, lunar dust, consisting of tiny, hard & very sharp particles and smelling
of gunpowder, is all over the Moon.
It makes a mess, causes symptoms like hay fever and gets into spacesuits, ruining them.
24.
It's not all bad though, since at sunset and sunrise the dust sort of “dances”.
It floats above the Moon’s surface, because electro-magnetic forces make the particles
float up.
25.
The Moon does have a kind of atmosphere, which is called an exosphere.
It consists of helium, neon and argon.
It’s ten trillion times less dense than on Earth.
26.
The absence of oxygen in the atmosphere means that the sky is utterly black while the sun
continues to glare.
Because of that, the shadows are clean-cut and contrastive; if you hide in a shadow on
the Moon, you won’t be able to see your hands and feet.
27.
Since there's no atmosphere, day changes into night instantly on the Moon.
There's no twilight there.
28.
Unlike what we used to learn at school, the Moon doesn't rotate around the Earth.
Both the Earth and the Moon orbit around the same spot, which is called barycenter.
That makes some scientists believe that the Moon isn’t actually a satellite.
29.
What is it then?
Well, the Earth’s satellite is more like a planet.
The Earth and the Moon are a double planet system, similar to Pluto and Charon.
This is also proved by the Moon’s size, which has 1/4th of the Earth’s diameter.
All other known satellites are much smaller than their planets.
30.
The Moon is the only space body outside the Earth where humans have landed.
So far.
31.
600 million people watched the first man in history take his first step on the Lunar surface
on TV.
Yep, it was really cool.
32.
Modern smartphones are more powerful than the computers that were used to land the “Apollo”
spaceship on the Moon.
33.
More than 400 trees that grow on the Earth today were brought from the Moon.
In 1971 the seeds were taken by “Apollo 14” to the Moon’s orbit, and then brought
back to Earth.
34.
It's been 47 years since the last flight to the Moon.
But NASA is working on new rockets, “Ares I” and “Ares V”, which will be able
to bring cargo to the Moon and get back.
35.
There are fresh tracks on the Moon’s surface, even though almost 50 years have passed since
astronauts last stepped on it.
Does it prove that there’s life on the Moon?
Nope, tracks can stay there for millions of years, because there’s no wind or liquid
water on the Moon to erode them.
36.
12 people have been to the Moon.
Neil Armstrong was the first one in 1969, and Eugene Cernan, the last, in 1972.
37.
After the crew of Apollo-11 came back to Earth they had to go through customs.
Really.
They declared they were bringing in moon rocks and dust.
38.
The Moon has its own time zone called Lunar standard time.
It doesn't correspond to the Earth’s time though.
A year on the Moon consists of 12 days, named after astronauts who walked on the Lunar surface.
Days fall into 30 cycles, which in their turn, consist of hours, minutes and seconds.
The calendar starts with the moment Neil Armstrong made his first step on the Moon.
39.
There’s no water on the surface of the Moon, and the ground is absolutely dry.
That’s why nothing can grow there.
But specimens of Lunar soil taken to Earth show that it’s quite suitable for growing
plants.
40.
The dark spots we see on the Moon are called “Mares” or Lunar seas.
There are 17 seas, 1 ocean (of Storms) and 4 bays.
But all of them are empty and dry.
Scientists used to believe that there’d been water in them before, but the theory
was proved wrong.
41.
Lunar seas are lowlands filled with basalt lava, which became solid long ago.
Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed their Eagle spacecraft on the Sea of Tranquility.
42.
The Moon has no magnetic field of its own.
But the stones brought by astronauts have magnetic qualities.
Scientists think that the Moon used to have a magnetic field earlier but lost it as the
result of a collision with asteroids.
43.
There are 200 tons of space junk on the Moon.
Actually it’s experiments, used-up backpacks and the like, left by NASA astronauts, who
landed on the Moon from 1969 to 1972.
The rest of the stuff was left by other countries, which made flights to the Moon without a crew.
44.
The oldest pieces of junk on the Moon are parts of probes that were sent there to find
out if it were possible to land on the Lunar surface.
In 1960, there was speculation that the Moon was covered with quick sands, which would
make it impossible for astronauts to land there.
As you know, that theory was proved wrong.
45.
Finally, there is no evidence of Cattle on the lunar surface, or even any hoofprints.
Per the nursery rhyme, “Hey diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over
the moon”, no indication of any bovine presence (cow or bull) has been discovered on the Moon.
And yes, this last item was totally bull.
Do you know any other surprising facts about the Moon?
Let me know down in the comments!
Hey, if you learned something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a
friend.
*But hey -- don’t go [singing]“fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars”
just yet!
We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out.
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Stay on the Bright Side of life!
*Alternate ending in case of song copyright questions:
But Hey -- don’t go “visiting the moon as a weight loss method” just yet!
We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out.
Just click on this left or right video and enjoy!
Stay on the Bright Side of life!