Moon
7:57 PM
All of us know the moon. When I was a child, I was always fascinated by it. I loved how it has a different shape every other night. The full moon was my favorite because I loved how the circle is so perfect up in the sky that it makes me think of my favorite cookie which is oreo.
The moon is the only natural satellite of our planet. It orbits 384,400 km from Earth, it has a diameter of 3476 km. The moon is a bit more than one-fourth (27 percent) the size of Earth.The Romans called the moon “Luna”.
In 1959, the moon was first visited by the Soviet Spacecraft Luna 2. On July 20, 1969 was the day the Apollo 11 landed on the moon, it was the spacecraft that brought Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins there.
The Moon was mapped by the little spacecraft Clementine in the year 1994 and was again mapped the Lunar prospector in 1999. The Moon has no atmosphere but there is an evidence from Clementine suggested that there may be ice near the south pole of the moon. Another data about the ice by the Lunar prospector was from the moon’s north pole.
Features of the Moon
Craters - craters are caused by the impact of the meteorites, asterods or comets.
Maria - this feature was originally thought to be "seas" by the astronomers. It is a large dark area, massive impacts left basins which filled with lava then cooled.
Mountains - the height of the mountains can range up to 7500m.
Rille - any of various valleys or trenches on the surface of the moon. Rilles can measure about 1-5 km wide and several hundred kilometers long.
Phases of the Moon
New Moon - the new moon is the phase where the dark side of the moon is facing us because the moon is in between the sun and the Earth.
Waxing Crescent - a part of the right side of the moon is illuminated and can be seen.
First Quarter - also known as half moon because half of the moon is illuminated, in this phase of the moon the right side is being illuminated.
Waxing Gibbous - in this phase more than half of the moon is being illuminated. Gibbous means "growing" or "expanding"
Full Moon - The whole moon is being illuminated is this phase. This phase happens when the Earth is between the sun and the moon.
Waning Gibbous - Waning means "decreasing" or "shrinking". In this phase, the illuminated part of the moon is decreasing but still more than half of the moon is being illuminated.
Last Quarter - also a half moon. In this phase, the left half portion of the moon is illuminated.
Waning Crescent - Half of the right portion of the moon is being illuminated.
1 comments
I really like your blog, it's very informative.
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