Our planet, unlike many others, has only one natural satellite that can be observed at night in the sky - this, of course, is the Moon. If you do not take into account the Sun, then this particular object is the brightest that can be observed from Earth.
Among the other satellites of the planets, the satellite of the planet Earth ranks fifth in size. It has no atmosphere, no lakes and rivers. Day and night replace each other here with a frequency of two weeks, while you can observe a temperature difference of three hundred degrees. And it always turns to us with only one of its sides, leaving its dark reverse side in riddles. This pale blue object in the night sky is the Moon.
The lunar surface is covered with a layer of regolith (black sand dust), which reaches different areas thicknesses from several meters to several tens of them. Moon sand regolith comes from constant fall meteorites and crushing in a state of vacuum, not protected by cosmic rays.
The surface of the moon is uneven with many craters different size. On the Moon there are both plains and whole mountains lined up in a chain, the height of the mountains is up to 6 kilometers. there is an assumption that more than 900 million years ago there was volcanic activity on the moon, this is evidenced by the found soil particles, the formation of which could be due to eruptions.
The surface on the Moon itself is very dark, despite the fact that on a moonlit night we can clearly see the Moon in the night sky. The lunar surface reflects just over seven percent sun rays. Even from the Earth, one can observe spots on its surface, which, according to an ancient erroneous judgment, have retained the name "sea".
moon and planet earth
The moon always faces planet Earth on one side. On this side, visible from the Earth, most of it is occupied by flat spaces, which are called seas. The seas on the moon occupy about sixteen percent total area and are giant craters that appeared after a collision with other cosmic bodies. The other side of the Moon, hidden from the Earth, is almost completely dotted with mountain ranges and craters from small to huge sizes.
The influence of the closest space object of the Moon to us extends to the Earth. So, a typical example is the ebbs and flows of the seas, which arise due to the gravitational attraction of the satellite.
Origin of the Moon
According to various studies, there are many differences between the Moon and the Earth, primarily in chemical composition: There is practically no water on the Moon, a relatively low content of volatile elements, a low density compared to the Earth, and a small core of iron and nickel.
Nevertheless, radiometric analysis, which determines the age of celestial objects if they contain a radioactive isotope, showed that the age of the Moon is the same as that of the Earth, 4.5 billion years. The ratio of stable oxygen isotopes for two celestial objects coincides, despite the fact that for all the studied meteorites such ratios have strong differences. This suggests that both the Moon and the Earth in the distant past were formed from the same substance located at the same distance from the Sun in a pre-planetary cloud.
Based general age, a combination of similar properties with a strong difference between two close objects of the solar system, 3 hypotheses of the origin of the moon are put forward:
- 1. Formation of both the Earth and the Moon from the same pre-planetary cloud
- 2. Capturing by the Earth's gravity an already formed object to the Moon
- 3. The formation of the Moon as a result of a collision with the Earth of a large space object comparable in size to the planet Mars.
The study of the pale blue satellite of the Earth of the Moon has been studied since ancient times. For example, among the Greeks, Archimedes' reflections on her are especially famous. Galileo described the Moon in detail with its characteristics and possible properties. He saw on the surface of the moon plains similar to "seas", mountains and craters. And in 1651, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli created a map of the Moon, where he painted in detail the lunar landscape of the surface visible from the Earth and introduced designations for many parts of the Moon's relief.
In the 20th century, interest in the moon increased with the help of new technological possibilities for the study of the Earth's satellite. So on February 3, 1966, the Soviet apparatus Luna-9 made the first soft landing on the surface of the Moon. The next device Luna-10 became the first artificial satellite The moon, and after quite a bit of time on July 21, 1969, a man first visited the moon. There has come a series of many discoveries in the field of selenography and selenology, which were made by Soviet scientists and their American colleagues from NASA. Then, towards the end of the 20th century, interest in the Moon gradually subsided.
(Photograph of the far side of the moon, landed by the apparatus "Change-4")
On January 3, 2019, the Chinese spacecraft Chanye-4 successfully landed on the far side of the moon, this side constantly facing away from the light emitted by the Earth and invisible from the surface of the planet. For the first time, the reverse side of the lunar surface was photographed by the Soviet Luna-3 station on October 27, 1959, and more than half a century later, at the beginning of 2019, the Chinese apparatus Chan'e-4 landed on the surface opposite from the Earth.
Colonization on the moon
Many writers and science fiction writers, along with the planet Mars, consider the Moon as an object for future human colonization. Despite the fact that this is more like a fiction, the US agency NASA seriously thought about this issue, setting the task of developing the Constellation program to resettle people on the lunar surface with the construction of a real space base on the Moon and the development of "inter-earth-lunar" space flights. However, this program was suspended by the decision of US President Barack Obama due to high funding.
Avatar robots on the moon
However, in 2011, NASA again proposed a new program, this time called Avatars, which required the development and manufacture of avatar robots on Earth, which would then be delivered to the Earth’s satellite, the Moon, in order to further simulate human living in lunar conditions. with the effect of telepresence. That is, a person will control the robot avatar from the Earth, fully dressed in a suit that will imitate his presence on the moon as an avatar robot located in real conditions on the lunar surface.
big moon illusion
When the Moon is low above the Earth's horizon, there is an illusion that its size is larger than it actually is. At the same time, real angular dimension The moon does not change, on the contrary, the closer it is to the horizon, the smaller the angular size is. Unfortunately, this effect is difficult to explain and rather refers to a visual perception error.
Are there seasons on the moon?
Both on Earth and on any other planet, the change of seasons occurs from the inclination of its axis of rotation, while the intensity of the change of seasons depends on the location of the plane of the planet's orbit, whether it be a satellite around the Sun.
The moon, on the other hand, has an inclination of its axis of rotation to the plane of the ecliptic of 88.5 °, almost perpendicular. Therefore, on the Moon, on the one hand, almost eternal day, on the other hand, almost eternal night. This means that the temperature also in each part of the surface of the Moon is different and practically unchanged. At the same time, there can hardly be any talk of changing the seasons on the Moon, much more from the simple absence of an atmosphere.
Why do dogs bark at the moon?
There is no unequivocal explanation for this phenomenon, but most likely, according to some scientists, the fear of the animal plays before an effect similar to a solar eclipse, from which many animals develop fear. The eyesight of dogs and wolves is very weak, and on a cloudless night they perceive the Moon as the Sun, confusing night with day. Weak moonlight and the moon itself are perceived by them as a dim Sun, and therefore, seeing the Moon, they behave in the same way as during a solar eclipse, howling and barking.
Lunar capitalism
In the fairy tale novel by Nikolai Nosov "Dunno on the Moon" the Moon is a satellite, perhaps artificial origin, where inside is a whole city - a stronghold of the modern capitalist system. Interestingly, children's story not so much it seems fantastic, but rather socio-political, not losing relevance and in modern time interesting for both children and adults.
The Moon is a satellite of the Earth, the closest celestial body to the Earth.
Radius - 1,738 km.
Age - 4.6 billion years.
The Moon makes a full revolution around the Earth in 27.3 days.
The surface of the moon is the territory of Africa and Australia combined.
The mass of the Moon is 81.53 times less than the mass of the Earth.
The average density is 3.33 g/cm (0.6 of the average density of the Earth).
The distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,395 km (about 60 Earth radii).
The average density of the Moon is 3.34 g/cm³.
queen of the night
There are legends that call the instrument of the gods who drowned the civilization that preceded us, some sinister Demon from the Abyss, in other words, a huge cosmic body that approached the Earth in order to provoke cataclysms of a planetary scale. There are reasons to believe that this body did not disappear, it became our Moon, which, quite possibly, is not ours at all. We know surprisingly little about the Moon. No one can really imagine how it could appear in our sky in order to become a regulating element of the Earth-Moon system, nor the mechanism of its influence on us.
The moon is anomalously large, and its composition differs to such an extent from the earth's that one would just like to say - a stranger. There are a great many hypotheses explaining its origin to one degree or another, and none convincing, on the contrary. In other words, the hypothesis that calls the Moon the "Death Star", "moored" to our planet in time immemorial, sounds no worse than others.
Double planet Earth - Moon
Since we have touched on the topic of the Moon, it is worth brushing up on some details regarding the Moon. It is such a familiar part of the night sky that we often do not pay attention to it, busy with current affairs: it flies for itself, and let it fly. Nobody seems to care. This, of course, is not entirely true, or, more precisely, not at all true.
Since ancient times, the moon has riveted the attention of man, in ancient times it was worshiped as a deity, at all times poets turned lines to it. It has long been the object of study by astronomers and acts as a key part of many esoteric teachings. The Moon owes its name to the Romans, the first astronomer who calculated the distance to the Moon in terrestrial radii is considered Aristarchus of Samos (III century BC), Plutarch was the first to inhabit it with selenite lunatics, the first to examine craters through a telescope was Galileo . Hundreds of scientists, beginning with Kant and Descartes, racked their brains over how it could appear in the sky. From the beginning of the 17th century, with the growth technical capabilities people, was formulated a large number of theories about it, but none that could be proven.
The era of astronautics, which started in the second half of the 20th century, when samples of lunar soil were brought to Earth, gave impetus to new research. Selenology has become a separate science, man has set foot on the moon, moreover, ambitious plans have appeared for the development and use of the moon. True, as it often happens, the more information appeared, the more open questions became than before, and the very fact of flights to the satellite is often questioned by supporters of the “lunar conspiracy” theory.
So what do we know about the moon? We know about it, at the same time, and quite a lot, and surprisingly little. The Moon revolves around the Earth in a slightly elongated elliptical orbit, the radius of which varies between 55 and 63 Earth radii. That is, between 350 and 405,000 km. The distance to the moon is not as great as it might seem at first glance. This is, for example, the mileage of a good passenger car, at which it is time to think about overhauling the engine, unless you have a Mercedes, which has an engine with a resource of a million kilometers.
In general, the distance to the Moon is large, but it cannot be compared with the distance separating our planet from, say, the Sun or even the closest planet to us - Venus. Rockets created on Earth can overcome it in just three days. Light for the same need less than two seconds.
Although the Moon rotates around its axis, it constantly faces the Earth on one side, because the Earth also rotates, only much faster, in addition, the center of gravity of the satellite is shifted, like a children's toy "Roly-Vstanka". The gravitational moment that appears when moving along the orbit causes it to turn towards the Earth with a more massive part. It is curious that the same principle is now used to orient artificial satellites.
We know that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, because the sky here is always black as coal, both at night and during the day, and the shadows match it. What can not be said about the temperature, which fluctuates with an amplitude of three hundred degrees. During the daytime, the sun heats the surface to +120 °C, and at night it drops to -160 °C.
The diameter of the satellite is almost 3500 km, it is only four times smaller than the earth. It is this fact that I propose to pay attention to in the first place. The Moon is abnormally large... for the Earth. Here, judge for yourself: the diameters of Titan and Triton, the satellites of Saturn and Neptune, respectively, are about 5500 km. Approximately the same size - all three satellites of Jupiter: Callisto, Ganymede and Io, their diameters are from three and a half to five thousand kilometers. The question is, what is the anomaly here, if the Moon is slightly smaller than the smallest satellite of Jupiter? The anomaly lies in the fact that Saturn, Neptune, and Jupiter are outer giant planets, not comparable in size and mass to our planet.
The inner planets with satellites are sparse. In addition to the Earth, they are only on Mars. At the same time, tiny, on a cosmic scale. The diameter of both moons of Mars is only 27 and 16 km. True, despite the size, scientists have a lot of questions for them. But now we are interested in the Moon, which, as it has just become clear, is not that too, loudly large.
The discrepancy between the sizes of the Earth and the Moon gave grounds to put forward the theory of a double planet, according to which the earth's satellite is not a satellite at all, but rather a part of " unified system Earth-Moon”, as defined by Dr. William Hartman of the Institute for Planetary Research (USA). At the same time, it is the Moon that acts as the control element of the system, while the Earth (and everything that is on it, of course) is presented as a controllable element.
Moon influence
How did such an opinion appear, and was Dr. W. Hartman in a hurry, considering the Moon as the regulator of a single system? Judge for yourself. Here are some facts.
The gravitational pull of the moon causes the water to pull towards itself. In the World Ocean, two moving bulges are formed, a larger one on the side closest to the satellite and a smaller one on the opposite side. This is how ocean tides are born, this is a known fact.
The moon makes a complete revolution around the Earth in 24 hours 50 minutes, in the coastal zone of the oceans water every 12 hours 25 minutes. begins to rise, forming a tidal wave. Since land makes up only 30% of the planet's surface, and the remaining 70% is covered by water, it is not difficult to imagine how great the influence of the satellite on the behavior of the atmosphere and climate formation. Under the influence of lunar gravity, by the way, the land is also deformed, it’s simply not so noticeable here. The solid surface extends towards the Moon by almost half a meter.
But that is not all. The tidal effect of the lunar gravitational field is experienced by the fluid environments of all living organisms without exception that inhabit the Earth, including ours, because the human body is 80% water. Thus, the influence of the moon affects, for example, the distribution of blood in the human body. This circumstance was not a secret for the doctors of the Celestial Empire long before chinese emperors decided to build their great wall to protect themselves from nomads. Ancient Chinese medical treatises directly connected the daily 2-hour activity of all 12 major organs of the human body with the gravitational influence of the satellite. It must be assumed that this consideration did not arise in vain.
Remember the theory of the icosahedral-dodecahedral structure of our planet, formulated in the early 1980s by Soviet scientists N. Goncharov, V. Makarov and V. Morozov? Scientists have made an assumption that in the center of the Earth's core there is a growing crystal, the heart of a kind of energy frame of the planet, in the rays of which the development of human civilization takes place. We talked about the energy fields that surround us from all sides, and that every object of nature, and you and I are no exception, has its own oscillation frequency, and about periodically appearing local geophysical resonances, which, quite possibly, can be provoked from the outside gravitational and energy fields of space objects.
The imposition of gravitational and magnetoelectric effects affect the liquid-crystal medium saturated with microelements. In the human body, its basis is blood, as well as intercellular and intracellular fluids. In the organ where they accumulate in the current period of time, magnetoelectric effects are also activated, causing the biological activity of enzymes. And as a result, it is the Moon, whether someone likes it or not, that regulates the circadian (that is, daily) periods of body activity, moreover, this is related to almost all aspects of life, from eating to sex or sleep. Moreover, the successive phases of the moon during the month set the rhythm of life on Earth. The mechanisms of this phenomenon are poorly understood or not studied at all, it simply takes place.
Here are a couple of examples. It is known that many of the inhabitants of the ocean, mollusks and fish, lay their eggs only on the full moon. It is also known that as the Moon stays (grows) the juices in plants move from the roots to the tops. AT agriculture have long been noticed that the "tops" should be torn on the full moon, just during this period of time they are the most juicy. Picking herbs, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, berries also falls on the full moon. On the contrary, in the process of the waning of the moon, the juices go to the roots, therefore, on the new moon, it is recommended to collect “roots”: potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, etc. An example of the fact that this phenomenon directly affects people is the menstrual cycle, the average frequency of which is 28 days, fully complies lunar cycle. In the end, today the nature of sleepwalking is absolutely not clear.
Another aspect. Scientists, after analyzing the statistical data of natural disasters over the past 900 years, found out that the strongest earthquakes occur on the full moon. There is such a close relationship between tectonic processes on the Moon and our planet, as if the Moon is not an independent celestial body, but one of the earth's continents. For example, after a devastating earthquake in Japan, an inexplicable glow was observed in one of the satellite's craters. The fact that these are not coincidences is evidenced by long-term observations of the lunar surface. Almost every cataclysm on Earth was observed there. There is no reasonable explanation for this.
Mystical influence of the moon
And, meanwhile, we have not even touched on another aspect of the influence of the moon - the mystical. Of course, it is possible to dismiss it as nonsense that the dark ancestors believed in, because they were uneducated people, did not watch TV series and various shows on TV, they had neither a radio nor a telephone, and they did not have sockets, but only candles instead of electric lamps and darkness rising from dark corners. On the other hand, the myths left by the ancestors are an integral part of the universal culture, you must agree that you cannot refuse it so casually. That would be impolite and also stupid. So, whether our ancestors were dense or not, it should be noted right away: most of the beliefs regarding the influence of the Moon on people, no matter what continents they are created on, are gloomy.
Yes, there is another factor of lunar influence, controversial and inexplicable to this day, and, at the same time, frankly sinister. Let's pay attention to the same werewolves, mythological creatures that can turn into various animals. without exaggeration, they have terrified people for centuries, legends dedicated to them are composed on all continents. Although, they appeared under different names. The Slavs called them volkulaks (volkolaks, volkodlaks), the ancient Germans - werewolves, the Japanese - kitsune, the Africans - anioto - leopard people, the Romans and Greeks - lycanthropes. It did not change the essence of the matter - in all cases it was said about werewolves.
I repeat, we are free to laugh heartily at the superstitions that tormented our ancestors, but this is significant: medical experiments, carried out comparatively less well in America, showed that moonlight not only causes disturbing dreams, but also, if it gets directly on the face, it can provoke depression and mental disorder. Don't believe after this grandmother's recipes who ordered to hang the windows of the bedroom thick curtains, on a full moon. Here is another "dispelled prejudice." Who knows if the sinister werewolf legend itself will not be blown away in this way, moving from television screens and books, much closer than we would like it. Moreover, lycanthropy is a very real disease. That's just how it is treated - it is not clear ...
Here, let's pay attention to this: for centuries, ideas that have been formed have associated werewolves with two factors: moon phases and magical practices. The fact that the gravitational and magnetoelectric lunar influence affects the liquid-crystalline medium saturated with microelements of all organisms inhabiting our planet, we said earlier. Such an impact exists, despite the fact that neither its mechanisms nor its limits, so to speak, have been absolutely studied by science, and now we note the following:
All 7 great world religions, Christianity and Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and Taoism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism teach that each of us, in addition to the physical body, has a soul and spirit. Schools of Eastern and Western esotericism develop and supplement these ideas, giving a person as many as seven bodies, while the densest, physical, serves as a kind of frame for the remaining six, which are called "subtle".
Approximately the same picture is drawn by Kabbalah. The universe appeared as a result of the emanation of 10 Sefirot (which some researchers interpret as measurements), three upper and seven lower, each of which had its own density. At the same time, the most high density corresponded to our material world.
Now, let's turn our eyes to the Moon and try to figure out where it came from in the first place. What are the hypotheses explaining its appearance?
How did the moon appear?
How the Moon appeared in our sky, no one can really say. With the origin of the Moon - not everything is as clean and smooth as one might imagine. There are many theories that one way or another explain its origin, they often contradict each other, each has its own weak spots, those where the evidence is, roughly speaking, far-fetched.
According to the one put forward in late XIX centuries of the centrifugal separation hypothesis (it is also called the "daughter"), the Moon and Earth at the beginning were one furiously rotating incandescent mass, the speed of which increased as it cooled and contracted. Finally, this mass shattered into two parts: a larger one and a smaller one. The titanic dent, which was formed on Earth as a result of a colossal cataclysm, later served as a bowl filled with the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
It should be noted that the "daughter" hypothesis was considered quite convincing for a long time, although it had several "Achilles' heels", the main of which was the extreme speed with which the Earth had to rotate in order for such a separation to occur - a complete revolution in approximately one hour. The angular momentum of the Earth's rotation in this case should have been 3-4 times higher than the current one, also not small. The appearance of such an angular momentum in the formed Earth does not currently find intelligible explanations.
Another hypothesis (the so-called joint accretion hypothesis, formulated by Emmanuel Kant in the middle of the 18th century) says that the Moon was formed from dust and matter almost at the same time as the Earth, turning into a natural satellite over time. Sometimes, such a hypothesis is called "sister". It looks quite convincing (and the Moon is the same age as the Earth), if it weren’t for the “but”: In terms of structure, the satellite is absolutely not like the Earth.
If the dimensions of the Moon as a satellite of the Earth are abnormally large, then its mass is even more surprising. Despite the fact that the lunar diameter is only 4 times less than the Earth's, it is 81 times lighter than the Earth. The Moon has an incredibly low average density. Its value is 3.34 grams per cubic centimeter, while the average density of the Earth is 5.52 grams per cubic centimeter.
Thus, the average density of the Moon is six tenths of that of the Earth. You might think that the satellite is composed of some extremely light rocks, but this is not at all the case, its surface is mainly composed of anorthositic rocks, unusually rich in titanium. The thickness of the shell covering it is on average 68 km (several times thicker than earth's crust), while heavier rocks are concentrated on the side facing our planet. From the above, the conclusion suggests itself - inside the Moon is hollow.
Much of the lunar surface is covered in regolith, a mixture of dust and rock fragments. It is curious that regolith, due to its extreme porosity, has very low thermal conductivity, this material is a wonderful insulator. On the surface of the satellite, the fierce cold changes the heat, the difference between day and night temperatures reaches 300 degrees Celsius, and at a depth of just a few meters below the surface, the temperature is constant, within -30 degrees Celsius.
Below, perhaps much warmer. By the way, space objects like the Moon are ideal vehicle. Many kilometers of basalt shell makes them invulnerable even to large asteroids, inside there is plenty of room for various equipment. And the absence of an atmosphere and weak gravity turn the moon into beautiful place both for the observatory and for the space shuttle runway.
Mankind has been thinking about this for a long time, however, the possibilities are not yet the same. America, for some reason, curtailed its program for the exploration of the moon back in the first half of the 1970s, the Union did not pull it either. Chinese in recent times threaten to implement a grandiose project for the exploration of the moon, but so far the words remain declarations, nothing more. True, I repeat, the absence of an atmosphere makes the surface uninhabitable. Well, it doesn't matter if it's possible to live inside. In addition, for a civilization capable of equipping a base here, it will not be big problems mine in required quantity oxygen from minerals. As for the needs for water, there is more than enough of it nearby, on Earth.
Perhaps every person at least once in his life looked at the moon. And even schoolchildren know some facts about her. We have collected for our readers not so famous, but no less Interesting Facts about the satellite of our planet.
1. The moon appeared as a result of a collision
The moon was created as a result of the collision. Scientists believe that the Moon was formed from the debris of the Earth and a space object the size of Mars after their collision.
2. 206 thousand 264 moons
In order for the night to be as bright as during the day, about three hundred thousand Moons would be needed, and 206 thousand 264 Moons would have to be in the full moon phase.
3. People always see the same side of the moon
People always see the same side of the moon. The gravitational field of the Earth slows down the rotation of the Moon around its axis. Therefore, the rotation of the Moon around its axis occurs in the same time as its rotation around the Earth.
4 Far Side Of The Moon
The far side of the Moon is more mountainous than that seen from Earth. This is due to the force of gravity of the Earth, which led to the fact that on the side turned towards our planet, a thinner crust.
5. Moon Tree Seeds
More than 400 trees growing on Earth were brought from the Moon. The seeds of these trees were taken by the crew of Apollo 14 in 1971, orbited the Moon and returned to Earth.
6 Asteroid Cruitney
The Earth may have other natural satellites. The asteroid Cruitney moves in orbital resonance with the Earth and makes a full revolution around the planet in 770 years.
7 Craters On The Surface Of The Moon
Craters on the surface of the Moon were left by meteorites 4.1 - 3.8 billion years ago. They are still visible only because, in geological terms, the Moon is not as active as the Earth.
8. There is water on the moon
There is water on the moon. There is no atmosphere on the Earth's satellite, but there is frozen water in shaded craters and under the soil surface.
9. The moon is not a perfect ball
The moon is not really a perfect ball. It is rather egg-shaped due to the influence of the Earth's gravity. In addition, its center of mass is not located at the center of the cosmic body, but about two kilometers away from the center.
10. Name crater...
The craters of the Moon were first called by the names of famous scientists, artists and explorers, and later by the names of American and Russian cosmonauts.
11. Moonquakes
On the Earth's satellite, there are earth ... moonquakes. They are caused by the gravitational influence of the Earth. Their epicenter is several kilometers below the surface of the moon.
12. Exosphere
The moon has an atmosphere called the exosphere. It is made up of helium, neon and argon.
13. Dancing dust
Dancing dust exists on the moon. It hovers above the surface of the moon (more intense at sunrise or sunset). Dust particles rise up due to electromagnetic forces.
The satellite of the Earth is more like a planet. The Earth and Moon are a double planet system, similar to the Pluto + Charon system.
15. The moon causes the ebb and flow on Earth
The moon causes the tides to ebb and flow on the earth. The gravitational influence of the moon affects the oceans of our planet. The highest tides occur during the full or new moon.
16. The moon is moving away from the Earth
One lunar day is equal to 29.5 days on Earth. On the Moon, it takes 29.5 Earth days for the Sun to cross the entire sky.
19. "Ares I" and "Ares V"
Humans have not landed on the moon for 41 years. However, NASA is working on new Ares I and Ares V rockets that will be able to deliver payloads to the Moon and back.
20. Progress
Smartphones today are far more powerful than the computers used to land Apollo on the Moon.
Especially for those who are interested in geography and interesting facts, we have collected.
How far are the nearest planets to us? Probably too far. Spacecraft reach Venus in four months, and Mars will take about two and a half years. But the satellite of our planet, the Moon, is only a three days way. About the same time the train goes from Moscow to Abakan. The only difference is that we will go to Abakan by train or fly by plane, and we will have to fly to the Moon by rocket.
Origin
The Moon is the only celestial body that no one has ever doubted that it revolves around the Earth. Also in Ancient Greece scientists created a theory of the motion of the moon, and even learned how to predict the solar and Lunar eclipses. Moon calendar appeared even earlier: the ancient Sumerians used it already around 2500 BC.
Where did the so well-known, familiar and long-time familiar Moon come from?
There have been many interesting hypotheses about this. It is believed that a long time ago, a small planet the size of Mars collided with the Earth. As a result of a terrible collision, a significant part of the Earth's substance was ejected into near-Earth orbit and subsequently formed the Moon.
Structure and surface
The moon can be divided into several layers (like all the planets of the solar system). In the very center is a solid iron core, covered with a molten shell of iron. Around the core is a partially melted boundary layer, and then there is a thick layer of rocky mantle.
Most upper layer The moon is called the crust. At the time of the final formation of the planets solar system The Moon's mantle was liquid, and especially large meteorites, breaking through the Moon's crust, caused magma to flow to the surface.
Subsequently, these areas cooled and darkened. It is they who correspond to the extensive dark spots on the lunar surface. Previously, people thought that the dark areas on the moon were filled with water, so they called them seas. When it turned out that there is no atmosphere on the Moon (which means that liquid water cannot be there, since it will immediately freeze or evaporate), they did not change the names, especially since they are very beautiful and romantic: the Sea of Clarity, the Rainbow Bay, the Lake of Dreams , there is even a Sea of Plenty. On the Moon, bright craters with diverging in different sides silver beams. They were also formed as a result of asteroids falling on the Moon, but much later, when the mantle solidified and did not flow out to the surface after the collision.
Research
For the first time the Soviet reached the moon spaceship"Luna-2" in 1959. Ten years later, American astronaut Neil Armstrong managed to land on the moon.
During the active exploration of the moon, dozens of scientific experiments were carried out, various soil samples were taken, many photographs and panoramas of the lunar relief were obtained. To date, we know much more about the Moon than about any other large cosmic body with the exception of the Earth. Currently, projects are being developed in various countries to create both inhabited and uninhabited lunar bases. It is quite possible to implement these projects, but some difficulties associated with the lack of atmosphere will have to be overcome. For example, many small asteroids, when falling to the Earth, are heated by friction against the air and burn out before reaching the earth. On the Moon, even a small pebble the size of a fist, hitting a building, can lead to tragedy, easily breaking through almost any defense. Flares on the Sun will also cause a lot of trouble, during which the radiation background is greatly enhanced.
It is possible that the first lunar bases will be built in small caves, which are occasionally found on the surface of the moon. There it will be easier to hide from meteorites and protect yourself from radiation. In addition, it is easier to do from a construction point of view - instead of building the entire base, you only need to close up the entrance and let in air brought from Earth.
moon illusion
When we look at the Moon, which is near the horizon, it seems to us that it is much larger than the Moon that we observed in the sky. This is optical illusion. What is known about this illusion is that it is really an illusion: the moon does not change its size when traveling through the sky. There are several various theories explaining this effect. According to one of them, how big or small we see an object in the sky depends on the size of other objects that we observe next to it. Thus, when we observe the Moon close to the horizon, other objects fall into our field of view, against the background of which the Moon seems larger than it really is. This feature of our vision is illustrated by the following picture.
The orange circle on the left, surrounded by large blue circles, appears smaller than the orange circle on the right, surrounded by small blue circles. In reality, the orange circles are the same size. You can see for yourself by printing the picture and measuring the diameters of the circles with a ruler. However, this can be done by attaching a ruler to the monitor.
Interesting
Interestingly, the periods of revolution of the Moon around its own axis and around the Earth are the same. This leads to the fact that the Moon all the time "looks" at the Earth with one side. Because of this feature, we can only observe a little more than half of the lunar surface. Here's what it looks like.
The part of the moon that is not visible to an observer from Earth is called the far side of the moon. The far side of the moon was first photographed by the Soviet lunar station Luna-3 in 1959.
Konstantin Kudinov
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The Moon is the closest cosmic body to the Earth. However, despite this, the satellite of our planet still hides a large number of secrets and mysteries that will be interesting to learn about.
The most interesting facts about the Moon that mankind knows or guesses about will be given below. And at the end of the list, you will surely say that you did not know this.
- Despite the fact that our satellite has little geological activity, earthquakes occur on it, and some of them reach sensitive 5-6 points on the Richter scale. Moonquakes have diverse nature- collision with meteorites, temperature change from the influence of the Sun. There are also particularly strong shocks, the nature of which is still unclear. There is a hypothesis that they occur under the influence of the Earth's gravity. According to a member of the Apollo 11 expedition, during such activity, a sound similar to the ringing of a bell is heard for some time.
- Contrary to popular belief, the Moon does not revolve around the Earth, but the Earth and the Moon revolve around the same point, which is called the barycenter. Thus, according to some, the Moon cannot be considered a satellite of the Earth, since the Moon and the Earth are a double planet. This is also supported by the size of the moon, which is a quarter of the diameter of the earth. Other planets have much smaller moons.
- There's trash on our satellite total weight which is approximately 200 tons. And, of course, all this garbage was formed from human activities - these are the remains of satellites, all-terrain vehicles, rovers and other equipment that was launched from Earth.
- Astronomer Eugene Shoemaker dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going to the moon. However, health did not allow him to realize his dream. Therefore, he bequeathed after his death to dispel his ashes on the surface of the satellite. NASA did this in 1998. The crater where this happened was named Shoemaker.
- Moondust has the smell of burnt gunpowder and is very dangerous to equipment. Due to the low gravity on the satellite, dust particles can develop high speeds, and their structure is very aggressive. Any object, even made of durable metal, with prolonged contact with such dust, will be significantly worn out. During the Apollo 11 expedition, the dust wore out and violated the integrity of the astronauts' spacesuits, penetrated the spacecraft and interfered in every possible way.
- Many people think that getting around on the Moon is easy because of the low gravity. However, it is not. During the expedition, the leg of an astronaut in a heavy spacesuit could dive into the ground to a depth of 15 cm. And long jumps became uncontrollable and dangerous due to the low gravity, because there are deep craters on the surface.
- There are several theories about the origin of the Moon: the satellite used to be part of the Earth and separated from it; the satellite used to be a free body, but the earth captured it with its gravity; The moon appeared from the dust debris that formed from the collision of the Earth with another planet. The last theory is the most reliable today.
- Telling the most interesting facts about the Moon, it is necessary, of course, to mention its influence on humans. It is authentically known that during the full moon some people suffer from insomnia, others may have nightmares.
- Due to the lack of atmosphere on the satellite, clear and contrasting shadows. The contrast comes to the point that on the expedition, the astronauts could not fully work with parts of the ship that were in the shade. And if you hide in the shadows yourself, you can not see your own legs and arms.
- The moon does not have magnetic field. However, the stones brought from the expedition were magnetic. They probably hit the surface of the satellite from other space bodies.
- Most craters appeared on the surface about 4 billion years ago. On Earth, these scars would have been overgrown long ago, but there is no such strong geological activity on the Moon, so they are still visible.
- This is the only space body where there was a man.
- Our satellite has water in the form of ice, but no atmosphere.
- Yes, it is generally accepted that there is no atmosphere there, but in fact it is, but very rarefied - 10 trillion times less dense than on Earth. Composed of hydrogen, neon, helium and argon.
- On the moon, you can observe an unusual phenomenon - dancing dust. Dust floats in the air for a while. It rises due to the magnetic influence of other cosmic bodies, and most often occurs during sunset and sunrise.
- The tides on Earth are driven by the gravitational pull of the moon. The satellite attracts water.
- The climate of our satellite is far from being a resort. During the day at the equator it is hot at 127 degrees, and at night it is cool - up to -170 degrees Celsius.
- 29.5 Earth days are the length of a day on the Moon.
- In 1969, the Apollo 11 expedition made the first and only landing of a man on the moon. Neil Armstrong is the first person to walk on the moon. Today, progress has come so far that most smartphones have more processing power than the computers used on Apollo 11.
- The first apparatus that landed on the surface belonged to the USSR and was called Luna-2. This happened in 1959.
- The satellite is visible to the inhabitants of the Earth only from one side. But this does not mean that the satellite does not rotate around its axis. It spins. And its period of rotation up to a second coincides with the period of rotation of the earth. Therefore, the other side is never seen.
- The most interesting facts about the Moon should also concern the solar eclipse, which is visible from the Earth. Complete solar eclipse the phenomenon is rare, and it occurs because of the amazing co-ownership - the moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than the sun, and exactly 400 times smaller in diameter than the sun. Thus, when the Moon is in line with the Sun, they appear to be the same size from the Earth.
- In the 70s, the UN announced that no state could become the owner of the moon. However, the cunning American Dennis Howes immediately realized that it was only about states, and nothing was said about private individuals. Therefore, he spontaneously became the owner of the moon, founded a lunar embassy and sent his diplomatic note to other states. As ridiculous as the idea may seem, Howes made billions of dollars by selling plots on the moon.
- In the Sun newspaper in 1835, an article was published about John Kerschel, an astronomer who allegedly assembled a powerful telescope and through it was able to see fabulous unicorns, flying creatures, beavers without a tail on our satellite. The issue sold out very quickly and profitably for the publication. And even after the hoax was exposed, the circulation of the newspaper did not fall. This event is known as the "Great Moon Swindle".
