Interesting facts about the Moon
“Shine on, even when no one is watching.” - Moon
All About the Moon
“The horizon is just the beginning; your journey holds endless possibilities.”
- Moon
Are you a selenophile? Are you someone who feels an unexplainable and magical attraction for the Moon? Well, you're not alone. There are many such people, myself included. For thousands of years, human civilisations have looked up to the sky pondering the origin and mysteries of the Moon - our only natural satellite. Humans and many other forms of life depend on the moon, and it is the only celestial body besides Earth we have visited. It has also influenced human culture, featuring in mythology and helping humans keep track of time.
"The sun watches what I do, but the moon knows all my secrets." - M. Wonderland​
Did you know?
- 12 - the number of men who have walked on the Moon.
- 16.5% - the percentage decrease in a human’s weight on the Moon.
- 3.8 cm - the distance the Moon drifts farther from Earth every year.
- 5th - the ranking of our Moon’s size compared to others in our solar system.
- If Earth were the size of a nickel, the Moon would be about as big as a coffee bean.
With a radius of about 1,740 kilometers, the Moon is less than a third of the width of Earth.
- The Moon is an average of 238,855 384,400 kilometers away. That means 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in between Earth and the Moon.
- The temperature on the Moon varies from super hot to super cold! When the Sun hits its surface, temperatures can reach a scorching 127°C. But when the Sun ‘goes down’, temperatures can plummet to around -153°C.
"But even when the moon looks like it’s waning…it’s actually never changing shape. Don’t ever forget that."
- Ai Yazawa​
7 Interesting facts about the Moon
1. Scientists aren’t entirely sure how the Moon formed. A popular the giant-impact theory is that a Mars-sized rock, named Theia, crashed into Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. The debris from the collision clumped together to make what is now… Our Moon!
2. Our moon shares a name with all moons simply because people didn't know other moons existed until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610. In Latin, the Moon was called Luna, which is the main adjective for all things Moon-related: lunar.
3. As the Moon travels, it rotates on its own axis, just like our planet. It takes roughly the same amount of time for the Moon to make a full rotation as it does for it to complete its orbit. This means we only ever see around 60% of the Moon’s surface from Earth! The part that faces Earth is known as the ‘near side’ and the other, the ‘far side’.
4. You likely know that the moon's gravity is the main cause of the tides on Earth. This gravitational pull causes two bulges in Earth's oceans that represent high tides: one in the part of the ocean on the side closest to the moon, and one on the opposite side. The area of high tide opposite the moon is caused by the moon pulling the planet and not the ocean toward it. Between these two bulges of high tide are areas of low tide.
5. However, as the Moon orbits the Earth it also causes a tide of rock to rise and fall in the same way as it does with the water. The effect is not as dramatic as with the oceans, but nevertheless it is a measurable effect, with the solid surface of the Earth moving by several centimetres with each tide.
6. Just as the moon's gravity causes the tides, Earth also affects the moon - and not just by keeping it in orbit. We see this effect every night in the familiar "man in the moon." The pattern of markings is always the same because the same side of the moon always faces Earth. This is called tidal locking" and is caused by the gradual impact of Earth's gravity on the moon. Our planet exerts a much stronger pull on the moon than it does on us.
7. The Moon’s surface is actually dark. Although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. We see the Moon because it reflects light from the Sun.
"So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you. Everything makes music if you really want it to."
- Giles Andreae
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