The light of the night, the Moon.
- The fifth biggest moon, or ‘natural satellites’ as they are called, in our solar system is the Moon, and it orbits the Earth.
- We only ever see one face of the Moon because it takes 27.3 days to complete one revolution on its axis and one orbit around the Earth.
- Humans only see the Moon because it reflects the light of the sun, and when you can see the moon, it outshines anything else in the night sky.
- The Moon is believed to have a small, hot core like the Earth, and it contains a significant amount of iron and magnesium as well as other natural materials.
- The Moon has many craters that will never disappear due to the lack of weather on the rock.
- The Moon has temperatures that range from -153°C to 134°C (-243°F to 273°F) depending on the position of the Moon and the sun.
- The Moon is responsible for tidal changes on Earth due to the gravitational force it creates, and low tides and high tides occur depending on which side of the Earth the Moon is on.
- The first spacecraft to visit and observe the Moon was sent by the Soviet Union in 1959, while the first humans to land on the moon was in 1969 in the spacecraft Apollo 11.
- The Moon is approximately 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from the Earth, although this varies due to the way it orbits the Earth.
- It is believed that more accidents occur on nights of a full moon since the gravitational force pulls at the brain’s fluids, but no proven evidence exists.
Bibliography:
Choi C, Earth’s Moon: Formation, Composition and Orbit, 2013, < http://www.space.com/55-earths-moon-formation-composition-and-orbit.html>
Moon, Wikipedia, 2013, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon>
