11 spectacular facts about the moon

The Moon is the closest satellite to the Earth in our solar system, but in many ways we barely know our neighbor. Scientists are not entirely sure of its formation, and other facts, such as its shape (more ovoid than spherical) and the consistency of its surface (dusty but firm), have only been confirmed recently. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the landing of the Apollo 11 moon this year and NASA preparing to return to the lunar surface for the first time in decades, it is time to return to these facts about the Moon – colorful names of full moon first landing on the dark side of the moon.

1. The Moon may have formed when a giant object of the solar system hit the Earth.

Scientists are not totally agreed on the formation of the Moon, but the most widely accepted theory is the hypothesis of the giant impact. According to this theory, an object the size of Mars called Theia collided with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, while the solar system was still new and chaotic. The impact dislodged matter from the earth's crust and debris attached to everything that was left of Theia by gravity.

This scenario would explain why the Moon is composed of lighter elements in the outer layer of the Earth, but some questions remain unanswered. If the hypothesis of the giant impact is correct, about 60% of the Moon should be made up of the object of impact. Instead, its composition is almost identical to that of the Earth. There are other explanations: one of the hypotheses is that the Moon is an object of the space taken in the Earth's orbit, another suggests that the Moon and the Earth were formed at the same time, but none is as popular as the theory of giant impact.

2. The moon is the ideal size for solar eclipses.

Many circumstances make possible total solar eclipses, seen from the Earth. The size and distance of the Moon from our planet are identical to those of the Sun in the sky. When the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, it perfectly covers the Sun with an impressive crown illuminating its edges. If it was smaller or further away from the Earth, it would look like a spot on the sun during a solar eclipse.

3. A Full Moon has different nicknames depending on the seasons.

A full moon may have many colorful names, but they do not always describe a special celestial phenomenon. Some are used to refer to a full moon that appears during a certain period of the year. The harvest moon, which is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, is the best known example, but there are many others including a wolf moon (first January moon), a strawberry moon (June) and a sturgeon moon (August).

4. It is the largest moon of the solar system in relation to its planet.

Our moon is not the largest in the solar system (this distinction belongs to Ganymede, one of the 79 moons of Jupiter), but it is the largest relative to the planet it orbits. With a diameter of 2159 miles and an area of ​​14.6 million square miles, the Moon is a little more than a quarter of the size of the Earth. The Pluto dwarf planet has an even smaller moon-planet ratio. The largest moon of Pluto, Charon, is almost the size of its host body, which has led some astronomers to qualify the pair of "double dwarf planet".

5. The moon has the shape of a lemon.

The moon may look perfectly round in the night sky, but it is actually a more oval shape. It appeared billions of years ago when very hot tidal forces shaped its crust, heating some areas warmer than others to form a lemon shape rather than a perfect sphere. . Earth's gravitational forces have contributed to exaggerating the oblong aspect of the Moon over the centuries.

6. Scientists thought that the dust of the moon would sink the lunar landing gear.

When they were preparing to send missions to the moon, some scientists feared that a thick layer of dust on the surface of the body would cause complications. One of the most fervent supporters of the dust theory was Thomas Gold, an astrophysicist at Cornell University. He insisted that the moon was covered with a sea of ​​dust thick enough and soft to swallow a lunar lander. Although the surface of the Moon is dusty, the layer is too thin to pose a problem because the successful landings of the Soviet Union Luna 9 and the American Surveyor space ships proved in 1966.

7. The Moon is an international property.

Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong may have planted an American flag on the moon in 1969, but he belongs to the world. Countries such as the Soviet Union and the United States have ensured that, at the height of the space race in 1967, they signed the Treaty on Human Rights. Outer Space, a document declaring that the Moon would be a "global commons" and that all the resources discovered there would be used. for the good of the world in general. In accordance with the spirit of the agreement, NASA shared ground samples taken from the moon with Soviet scientists returning from the Apollo 11 mission.

8. Humans have left strange things on the moon.

Since the first people landed on the moon in 1969, its surface is home to more than just dust. Earth artifacts left on the moon by astronauts include two golf balls, an obscure Andy Warhol scribble and a message from Queen Elizabeth II. Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 and one of the last people to walk on the moon, traced the initials of his daughter in the ground during his visit in 1972. Without wind or weather on the moon, the letters TDC could stay there forever.

9. The "dark side of the moon" is the result of a synchronous rotation.

Even if the Moon is in constant rotation, only one of its sides is visible from the Earth. Indeed, the Moon is locked in synchronous rotation. It takes as long for the Moon to perform a full rotation as for the body to orbit the Earth once. The same side is always facing our planet. This is not a coincidence: Earth's gravitational forces have gradually pulled the tip of the slightly oblong Moon towards the planet, creating an element called tidal lock.

In January 2019, the Chinese Space Agency laid the first lunar probe on the unexplored dark side of the Moon. The satellite Chang & # 39; e 4 sent the first photographs of a massive impact crater on the dark side on Earth, offering scientists a first glimpse of this unknown region.

10. An astronaut was allergic to the moon.

Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut, has discovered the hard way that some people are allergic to lunar matter. After examining a valley in the sea of ​​serenity, he climbed back into the lunar module of the crew and followed with him a lot of lunar dust. Dust affected him as soon as he removed his spacesuit, causing red eyes, sneezing and other symptoms that lasted two hours.

11. Humans will soon return to the moon.

After completing several manned missions on the moon, NASA ended the Apollo program in 1972 as budgets tightened and the public interest declined. This means that most people alive today have never witnessed an inhabited lunar landing, but now, after an interruption of nearly 50 years, NASA is finally preparing to return to the moon. The next inhabited lunar expedition will be ready to launch "no later than the end of the 2020s," according to the space agency. One of the objectives will be to place a control module, called Gateway, in the orbit of the moon, that astronauts can reuse during several missions.