10 Facts About the Moon

What do we all know for sure about the moon? That it is the only natural satellite of the Earth. That on a clear night this pale yellow circle (or semicircle, or sickle) can be seen from any point on the earth’s surface. And also – that in fact it is a huge stone ball of slightly irregular shape, rotating around our blue planet at great speed. And that it is precisely because of the gravitational influence of this giant flying block that tides occur in the earth’s seas and oceans.

But in fact, of course, we know quite a bit about the Moon, despite the fact that it, as the closest space object to the Earth, has been studied in the most detail at the moment. Not only that, – even a human foot has already stepped on it (but this is not accurate, as people vehemently assure us, who stubbornly do not believe that there were Americans on the Moon, – they say, they just filmed a “moon landing” in the most ordinary “cinematic” pavilion in Hollywood). Let us not argue with anyone, because this is not our task now. We just want to introduce you to some interesting facts about the moon that you most likely have not heard about.

10 Turtles were the first to fly around the moon

Many of us have heard about the famous astronaut – the dog Laika. Even younger schoolchildren know about Belka and Strelka (especially since 2010 full-length Russian cartoons were made about them from 2013 to 4). More advanced connoisseurs of the history of space exploration are aware that monkeys, white mice, guinea pigs, and newts with frogs have been in space. But the fact that the first of all living creatures to fly around the moon was made by the Central Asian turtles (in company with beetles, flies, algae, seeds of terrestrial plants and bacteria), most now probably learned for the first time.

9. From the Earth to the Moon, theoretically, you can walk in 9 years

The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384400 km. How much it? How to imagine, at least approximately, such a figure? But like this:

• a beam of light travels this distance in 1,25 seconds;
• the Apollo 15 spacecraft in July 1971 flew to the moon for a little longer than three days;
• by plane, the speed of which is 800-850 km / h, we would get there in about 20-21 days;
• on a car continuously moving at a speed of 90-100 km / h – for six months (160-180 days);
• Well, if someone decided to master such a road on foot, at a quick pace, then he would walk (and this is non-stop!) for 9 years.

8. Craters and seas on the Moon can be seen even with a weak telescope

Even if you have only the most ordinary home telescope available, you can easily admire the lunar landscapes. On the surface of the earth’s satellite there is a huge number of craters that appeared from impacts on the lunar surface of various celestial bodies (you know that the Moon, unlike the Earth, does not have a dense atmosphere that would literally burn almost all “intruders” ?), as well as 17 “seas” (and in fact, vast fields of long-long frozen lava), the Ocean of Storms and 4 “bays”.

The largest lunar crater (which is located on the dark side of the Moon, not visible from Earth) is Hertzsprung, its diameter is 536 km. And on the side of the satellite that faces us, the largest is the Bayi crater (301 km). Both are named after famous scientists. In addition, there are craters Archimedes, Aristotle, Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Gagarin, Korolev, etc. on the Moon. And with your home telescope, you can view the Carpathians, the Apennines, the Alps, the Caucasus, the Pyrenees and other lunar mountains that are on the visible side of the moon.

By the way, do you know that we always observe the same side of the satellite? This is due to the fact that the Moon rotates around its own axis in exactly the same time as it completes its revolution around the Earth. And in fact, the “dark side of the Moon” is illuminated by the Sun in the same way as the bright side. For the first time, scientists managed to see it in 1959, when the Soviet space station Luna-3 circled the Moon, photographing this “secret” part of it.

7. The temperature on the moon fluctuates greatly.

Due to the absence of an atmosphere on the Moon (which could prevent a sharp heating or a sharp cooling of its surface), very strong daily temperature drops occur here: in different places – from -173-150 ° to + 100-127 ° Celsius (that is, immediately at 250-280 °, and in a matter of minutes). Can you imagine this? Even 10 minutes ago, any living organism could easily freeze to a “glassy” state, but then the Sun rose, and it immediately begins to literally fry to a golden crust. Horror…

But on Earth, the sharpest temperature drop (recorded in 1916 in the USA, in the state of Montana) was only 56 ° – from -49 ° to + 7 °, and this happened only once (and thank God!).

6. During an eclipse, the diameters of the lunar and solar disks are the same

A solar eclipse is a rather rare (and therefore very interesting) phenomenon. Many exalted, mystical or simply very religious people consider it by no means a coincidence that from the Earth the diameters of the solar and lunar disks seem almost identical. Yes, in fact, this is indeed an amazing, although quite scientific fact – the Moon is about 400 times smaller in diameter than the Sun, while its distance to the Earth is just the same 400 times less than the distance from Earth to the Sun. And therefore, when, during its rotation around our planet, the Moon is in line with the Sun, it closes it with itself almost perfectly.

5. There is always a starry sky on the moon, and the shadows are very thick

Again, due to the fact that the Moon has no atmosphere, a black, starry sky is always visible from its surface (and the Earth is always visible, and constantly in the same position – that is, if there were inhabitants on the Moon, then for them, too, there would be a “dark side of the Earth”), and night and day change instantly, without a smooth transition, as on our native blue planet.

No, in fact, the Moon has a very rarefied likeness of the Earth’s atmosphere – the exosphere, which consists of helium, hydrogen, neon and argon. But it is already 10 trillion times less dense than ours. The consequences of this phenomenon are:

• there are no winds on the earth’s satellite, and therefore, for example, the traces left by the Soviet lunar rover or American astronauts will remain here for hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even millions of years;
• the shadows on the moon are much darker than on earth (since light is not scattered by anything in the absence of an atmosphere), which made it very difficult for the members of the American space expedition to work in the shadow of the ship – they could hardly even see their own hands and almost did not see their legs;
• silence always reigns on the moon, because sounds cannot propagate there;
• the surface of our satellite is constantly under the influence of cosmic radiation and the “solar wind” – nothing stops them either.

4. On the moon, all earthlings are heroes

Gravity on the surface of the moon is only 16,5% of the earth’s (that is, the force of gravity here is 6 times less than we are used to). It turns out that, theoretically, the weight of a 100-kilogram male Earthman on the Moon will be only 17 kg. And at the same time, he will be able to overcome distances and lift weights 6 times greater than on Earth. And yet – without much difficulty to jump up to 15 meters. On the one hand, this is, of course, great, but on the other hand, it is very dangerous, because in the end you can accidentally “jump” into some deep crater.

Another big danger arising from low gravity is the ubiquitous fine lunar dust. Because of her, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (who do not know – the first people to walk on the moon) experienced great inconvenience. This dust, constantly hanging over the lunar surface, penetrated everywhere – into the crevices of equipment (quickly disabling it), into spacesuits, and even into the lungs of the astronauts themselves, causing allergies (by the way, it also smells like burnt gunpowder).

3. You have the opportunity to buy yourself a plot on the moon

In 1979, the UN adopted a document on the international legal status of the moon. It says that the moon cannot belong to any country, and that any military action is prohibited there. But the enterprising American Dennis Hope noticed that this agreement nowhere says anything about the fact that private individuals cannot own the Moon or other space objects. He created the company The Lunar Embassy (“Lunar Embassy”) and began to sell plots on the moon for $ 20 per acre (about 0,4 hectares). Moreover, Hope “appropriated” also Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter’s satellite Io, etc. The most interesting thing is that, despite the fact that certificates for the acquisition of sites in different parts of the solar system are not valid under the laws of any state on Earth, Hope’s business is booming and brings him billions.

2. On the moon there is a small monument to the fallen astronauts

When Apollo 1971 “landed” on an earth satellite in 15, its commander David Scott installed a small sculpture “The Fallen Cosmonaut”, about 9 cm high (created by the Belgian Paul van Heydonk) in the lunar region of Hadley-Apennines. This figurine is an aluminum man in a spacesuit lying on his back. Next to it is a plate with the names of 6 Soviet cosmonauts who died at that time (including the name of Gagarin) and 8 American astronauts.

In addition, one earthling was actually buried on the Moon – astronomer and geologist Eugene Shoemaker. He really wanted to fly into space, he tried to get into the detachment of American astronauts, but for health reasons he was never accepted. Then he bequeathed to NASA to scatter his ashes over the surface of the moon after death. In 1998, his request was fulfilled – the capsule with the ashes of Shoemaker was delivered to the earth satellite by the Lunar Prospector station.

1. The movie “Avatar” may partially come true

The exploration of the moon, of course, is a very complex and expensive process. Everything is greatly complicated by the fact that people cannot stay on its surface for a long time, even in spacesuits. Why? Re-read many of the previous paragraphs. “Maybe it’s easier to use robots to work on the Moon?” – scientists from NASA thought, – “But such robots, which will be controlled by people from the Earth.” So in 2010, the Avatars project was born. It was assumed that scientists of different specialties, astronomers, physicists, geologists, etc., would be able to control the avatar robots (with the help of special high-tech remote presence suits) in turn. And all this NASA was going to do in just 1000 days (that is, already in 2014). Alas, nothing new has been heard about the “avatars” so far.