►For centuries,
many people used to believe that the moon was a perfect sphere that had been
created by the gods. In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei noticed
that actually the Moon had many craters that were likely to have been caused
by meteorite impacts.
►The Soviet
spacecraft 'Luna 2' was the first space probe to land on the moon on 13th
September 1959
►On 7th
October 1959 the Soviet (Russian) spacecraft, Luna 3, sent back the first
pictures of the dark side of the moon.
►On 20 July
1969, the American astronaut Neil Armstong, became the first man to walk on
the surface of the moon
►Despite
looking like a large ball of dull rock, the moon has actually had a volcanic
history.
►Scientists
love to give technical, latin or numeric names to just about everything, but
whilst some people refer to it as 'Lunar' (Latin) or Selene (Greek),
essentially it's just known as 'The Moon'.
►Despite
it's size, the Moon isn't classified as a planet as it orbits the earth and
not the sun.
►It was not
discovered until 1665 that other
planets had natural satellites
as well, at which point "moon"
started to be dropped and
instead referred to as "The
Moon"
►Rotation of moon
The same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. The Moon's rotation period
is
synchronous with its revolution period around the Earth.
►Because the
moon is egg-shaped with one heavier side, it is unable to spin freely and
reveal the dark side.
►Change of distance
 |
Because of a loss of orbital energy to gravity from the Earth, the Moon is
very gradually
moving away from the Earth. In the very early history of the Earth, the Moon
looked
about 3 times larger in apparent size in the sky, because it was closer to the
Earth.
►Lunar atmosphere
The Moon has almost no atmosphere, because of its weak gravity. All types of
gas will escape from its surface.
Without an atmosphere, there is no wind or water erosion. The Moon's surface
is about the same now as it was 3 billion years ago. The astronauts'
footprints remain unchanged on the Moon's surface. The footprints should last
at least 10 million years.
►Because the moon has no atmosphere, sound cannot travel and so
even if you were to shout as loud as possible, someone standing next to you
wouldn't hear a thing.
►Temperatures on the moon, dress code
The surface temperature fluctuates from roughly +300° F during the 2-week
daytime to -270 F during the 2-week night. This is because there is not enough
atmosphere to keep the Moon warm at night, nor protect it from the Sun's rays
in the daytime. If you are wondering what to wear, an astronaut's suit is the
most appropriate answer.
►The Apollo 11 mission to the moon
The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle, at Launch Pad 39A, awaits the liftoff
scheduled for 9:32 a.m. EDT, along with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael
Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
►We all know there was a man on the moon, but did you know that
one stayed there. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, a Geological Surveyor, who
trained the Apollo mission astronauts about craters never made it
into space himself, but this was something he always wanted to do.
He was rejected because of medical problems. After he died, his
ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft on
January 6, 1999 and it was crashed into a crater on the moon on July
31, 1999. Although this was done to see if there was water on the
moon at the time, but ironically it gave Dr Shoemaker his last wish.
►When Alan Sheppard was on the moon, he hit a golf ball and
drove it 2,400 feet, nearly one half a mile.
►During the
planned eight-day mission, Armstrong and Aldrin descended in a lunar module to
the Moon's surface while Collins was orbiting overhead in the command module.
The two astronauts spent 22 hours on the Moon, including two and one-half
hours outside the lunar module. They gathered samples of lunar
material and
deployed scientific experiments.
They rejoined Collins at the command module for the return trip to Earth.
►Just twenty
seconds' worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the
moon.
The multi-layered space suit worn by astronauts on the Apollo moon landings
weighed 180 pounds on Earth and 30 pounds on the Moon with the reduced lunar
gravity.
►The average
desktop computer contains 5-10 times more computing power than was used to
land a man on the moon.
►The surface
speed record on the Moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set in an Apollo
lunar rover.
►Size comparison
The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
►Lunar magnetic field
The Moon has no global magnetic field. You cannot use a compass to find your
direction.
►Strange Mathematics: 1/2 equals 1/4
A quarter moon and a half moon are the same thing. The quarter refers to the
fraction of the lunar month which has passed, whilst the half describes the
portion of the Moon's disc which is visible.
►Legal status - Buying land on the moon
Though several flags of the United States have been symbolically planted on
the moon, the U.S. government makes no claim to any part of the Moon's
surface. The U.S. is party to the Outer Space Treaty, which places the Moon
under the same jurisdiction as international waters. This treaty also
restricts use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning weapons of
mass destruction (including nuclear weapons) and military installations of any
kind. A second treaty, the Moon Treaty, was proposed to restrict the
exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, but it has not been
signed by any of the space-faring nations. SpaceandTechnology
►HD quality
pictures from Moon (Earth Rise)
►Why
moon is moving away from the earth?
