Facts About The Moon
There are many interesting
facts about the moon. Some of these moon facts include its age, gravity, orbital period, circumference, declination and its distance to earth. The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The Moon is the only celestial body other than Earth on which humans have set foot. While the Soviet Union’s Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959, the United States’ NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972, with the first being Apollo 11. See the table below for some of the most commonly searched facts about the moon.
Basic Moon Information
| Moon Topic | Moon Fact |
|---|
| Name | The Moon |
| Age of the Moon | 4.527 billion years |
| Moon’s Distance to Earth | 238,900 miles (384,400 km) |
| Traveling by Car | 130 Days |
| Traveling by Rocket | 13 Hours |
| Traveling by Light | 1.52 Seconds |
| Gravity of the Moon | 1.624 m/s² |
| Orbital Period of the Moon | 27 days |
| Circumference of the Moon | 6,784 miles (10,917 km) |
| Declination of the Moon | 28° 0.000′ |
| Mass of the Moon | 73,490,000,000,000,000 million kg |
| Shape of the Moon | Egg-Shaped |
| Family of the Moon | Our solar system |
| Satellite Status | Only satellite of Earth |
| Active Relationships of the Moon | Orbits around Earth |
| Mean Synodic Period of the Moon | 29.530588861 days |
| Mean Orbital Velocity of the Moon | 1.023 km/sec |
Interesting Facts About The Moon
Facts About The Moon
Called Luna with the Romans, Selene and Artemis with the Greeks, and many additional names in other mythologies.The Moon, of course, may be known since prehistoric times. It is the second brightest object within the sky after the Solar. As the Moon orbits round the Earth once per thirty days, the angle between the planet earth, the Moon and sunshine changes; we see this for the reason that cycle of the Moon’s periods. The time between effective new moons is twenty nine and a half days (709 hours), slightly totally different from the Moon’s orbital period (measured from the stars) since the Earth moves an important distance in its orbit round the Sun in that time period.Due to its size and composition, the Moon may also be classified as a terrestrial “planet” in addition to Mercury, Venus, Earth along with Mars.The Moon was visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna two in 1959. It is the only extraterrestrial body to get been visited by humans. The first landing ended up being on July 20, 1969 (do you remember where you’re? ); the last is at December 1972. The Moon is additionally the only body where samples have been went back to Earth. In the summer of 1994, the Moon was very extensively mapped with the little spacecraft Clementine along with again in 1999 simply by Lunar Prospector.The gravitational forces relating to the Earth and the Moon cause some interesting results. The most obvious is the tides. The Moon’s gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side. Since the planet earth, and particularly the oceans, is not perfectly rigid it really is stretched out along the actual line toward the Moon. From our perspective on the Earth’s surface we notice two small bulges, one on the way to the Moon and one directly opposite. The effect is a lot stronger in the ocean water than within the solid crust so water bulges are higher. And considering that the Earth rotates much faster than the Moon moves in its orbit, the bulges maneuver around the Earth about once per day giving two high tides on a daily basis. (This is a enormously simplified model; actual tides, especially close to the coasts, are much more complicated. )But the Earth seriously isn’t completely fluid, either. The Earth’s rotation provides the Earth’s bulges slightly before point directly beneath the actual Moon. This means which the force between the Earth along with the Moon is not exactly across the line between their centers desigining a torque on the Soil and an accelerating force on the Moon. This causes a world wide web transfer of rotational energy from the Earth to the Moon, slowing down the Earth’s rotation by about 1. 5 milliseconds/century and raising the Moon in to a higher orbit by regarding 3. 8 centimeters annually. (The opposite effect occurs to satellites with unusual orbits for instance Phobos and Triton).
The asymmetric nature on this gravitational interaction is also responsible for the truth that the Moon rotates synchronously, when i. e. it is locked throughout phase with its orbit so the same side is always facing toward the planet earth. Just as the Earth’s rotation is actually being slowed by the actual Moon’s influence so within the distant past the Moon’s rotation was slowed with the action of the Soil, but in that case the effect was much stronger. If your Moon’s rotation rate was slowed to match its orbital period (such which the bulge always faced toward the Earth) there is no longer an off-center torque on the Moon and a secure situation was achieved. A similar thing has happened to the vast majority of other satellites in the actual solar system. Eventually, the Earth’s rotation will likely be slowed to match the actual Moon’s period, too, as is the case with Pluto along with Charon.Actually, the Moon appears to wobble a lttle bit (due to its slightly non-circular orbit) so that a few degrees of the far side can be seen every once in awhile, but the majority of the far side (left) was completely unknown before the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 photographed the item in 1959. (Note: there’s no “dark side” of the actual Moon; all parts of the actual Moon get sunlight half the time (except for some deep craters near the actual poles). Some uses of the term “dark side” previously may have referred to the far side as “dark” within the sense of “unknown” (eg “darkest Africa”) however even that meaning is no longer valid today! )The Moon doesn’t have atmosphere. But evidence from Clementine suggested that there could possibly be water ice in some deep craters close to the Moon’s south pole that are permanently shaded. This has been reinforced by facts from Lunar Prospector. There’s apparently ice at the north pole as well.The Moon’s crust averages 68 kilometers thick and varies by essentially 0 under Mare Crisium for you to 107 km north of the crater Korolev on the actual lunar far side. Below the crust is often a mantle and probably a tiny core (roughly 340 kilometers radius and 2% of the Moon’s mass). Unlike the planet earth, however, the Moon’s interior is no longer active. Curiously, the Moon’s center regarding mass is offset by its geometric center simply by about 2 km within the direction toward the Soil. Also, the crust is thinner on the near side.There are two primary varieties of terrain on the Moon: the heavily cratered and extremely old highlands and the actual relatively smooth and youthful maria. The maria (which comprise about 16% of the Moon’s surface) are huge impact craters which were later flooded by molten lava. A lot of the surface is covered with regolith, a mixture of great dust and rocky debris produced by meteor impacts. For many unknown reason, the maria are concentrated on the near side.Most of the craters on the in close proximity to side are named for famous figures within the history of science for instance Tycho, Copernicus, and Ptolemaeus. Features on the far side have newer references such as Apollo, Gagarin and Korolev (with any distinctly Russian bias since first images were acquired by Luna 3). Besides the familiar features on the actual near side, the Moon also offers the huge craters South Pole-Aitken on the far side which is actually 2250 km in height and 12 km deep so that it is the the largest impact basin within the solar system and Orientale on the western limb (as observed from Earth; in the biggest market of the image at left) the industry splendid example of any multi-ring crater.A total of 382 kg regarding rock samples were returned to the Earth by the Apollo along with Luna programs. These provide almost all of our detailed knowledge of the Moon. They are particularly valuable in that they may be dated. Even right now, more than 30 years as soon as the last Moon landing, people still study these cherished samples.Most rocks on the top of Moon seem to become between 4. 6 and 3 billion years. This is a fortuitous match while using the oldest terrestrial rocks that are rarely more than 3 billion years. Thus the Moon provides evidence in regards to the early history of the Solar System not available on the Earth.Prior to study of the Apollo examples, there was no consensus in regards to the origin of the Moon. There were three major theories: co-accretion which asserted which the Moon and the Earth formed concurrently from the Solar Nebula; fission which asserted which the Moon split off of the Earth; and capture which held which the Moon formed elsewhere along with was subsequently captured with the Earth. None of these work very well. But the new and detailed information from the Moon rocks led to the impact theory: that the planet earth collided with a very large object (as big because Mars or more) understanding that the Moon formed from the ejected material. There continue to be details to be exercised, but the impact theory is actually widely accepted.The Moon doesn’t have global magnetic field. But some of its surface rocks exhibit remanent magnetism indicating that there was a global magnetic field early within the Moon’s history.With no atmosphere with out magnetic field, the Moon’s surface is exposed right to the solar wind. Over its 4 million year lifetime many ions from the solar wind have become embedded within the Moon’s regolith. Thus types of regolith returned by the actual Apollo missions proved valuable in studies of the solar wind.
Moon Phases, Full Moons and Moon Calendars
As the Moon orbits Earth, it changes phase in an orderly way. Follow these links to understand the various phases of the moon.
Popular Full Moon Calendars
Some popular full moon calendars, in addition to the 2025 Full Moon Calendar, include the following: Moon Calendar 2011,Moon Calendar 2012, Moon Calendar 2013, Moon Calendar 2014, Moon Calendar 2015, Moon Calendar 2016, Moon Calendar 2017, Moon Calendar 2018, Moon Calendar 2019, Moon Calendar 2020, Moon Calendar 2021, Moon Calendar 2022, Moon Calendar 2020, Moon Calendar 2023, Moon Calendar 2024, Moon Calendar 2025.
You can also check out our Full Moon Calendar, Lunar Calendar, Lunar Eclipse Calendar and Solar Eclipse Calendar!Full Moon Names History 2025 Full Moon CalendarFull Moon names have been used by many cultures to describe the full moon throughout the year. Specifically, Native American tribes used moon phases and cycles to keep track of the seasons by giving a distinctive name to each recurring full moon, including the Flower Moon. The unique full moon names were used to identify the entire month during which each occurred.
Although many Native American tribes gave distinct names to the full moon, the most well known full moon names come from the Algonquin tribes who lived in the area of New England and westward to Lake Superior. The Algonquin tribes had perhaps the greatest effect on the early European settlers in America, and the settlers adopted the Native American habit of naming the full moons. Learn More About The Moon! |
