Our natural satellite is the moon. Interesting facts about the Moon: its dark and light sides
The Moon is the closest cosmic body to us, the most visible object in the night sky. It is not surprising that it is also the most studied and the only one on whose surface a human foot has stepped. However, it cannot be said that everything is known about the Moon. She still hasn't revealed some of her secrets. Some interesting facts about the Moon have a generally accepted explanation, but periodically receive an alternative interpretation.
Characteristics of the night light
The Moon is the only satellite of our planet. It makes one revolution around the Earth in approximately 27.32 days. In this case, the satellite’s orbit has a somewhat elongated shape. The average distance that separates us from the night star is just under 400 thousand kilometers. The most significant facts about the Moon for children are, perhaps, the change of phases and the fact that you can fly to it. Adult amateur astronomers of all times and peoples were interested in its origin, its influence on the Earth’s weather and on the destinies of people.
Legends of the Moon
The Earth's satellite is the hero of many myths. Some of them explain the appearance of the Moon in the sky, others tell what caused the change of phases. Almost all peoples, among others, honored the personification of the Moon, god or goddess. IN Greek mythology it was, first of all, Selene, whose name was later given to the science that studies the Earth’s satellite (selenology).
Legends about the Moon, which explained why it was sometimes full and sometimes turned into a month, were often associated with tragic events in the life of the luminary. Among the Balts, the formidable thunder god Perkunas punished the Moon for betraying the beautiful Sun by cutting her into pieces. In Siberia, there is a well-known myth about how the night luminary descended to Earth and was caught by an evil witch. The sun tried to snatch the moon from the witch's hands, but as a result she was torn into two parts.
There were also numerous stories that explained the clearly visible spots on the face of the star. For some peoples this is a man exiled as punishment, for others it is a beast living on the moon.
Amazing coincidence
Many legends explain solar eclipses. Today, when listing interesting facts about the Moon, its role in this phenomenon is often omitted as generally known. However, it is the eclipse that clearly demonstrates one curious point: the combination of the distance from the Sun to the Moon and from the night luminary to the Earth and the size of the Moon seem to be specially selected. If the incarnation of the ancient Greek Selene was located a little further or closer, or if its size were different, we would either not know what a total eclipse is, or we would not have the opportunity to admire the solar corona. The moon “hangs” in such a way that the daylight is periodically completely placed behind it, showing only a beautiful frame.
Moreover, the numerical values of the parameters are also surprising: the distance from the Earth to the Moon is, as already noted, approximately 400 thousand kilometers, and this is 400 times less than to the Sun, and the night star itself is also 400 times smaller than the day star. These facts about the Moon are often used as evidence for the theory of its artificial origin.
Hypothesis
A similar opinion was expressed by Mikhail Vasin and Soviet scientists in the 60s of the last century. They supported their theory with information that all the craters, which cover the surface of the satellite in great numbers, have approximately the same depth, regardless of their area - no more than three kilometers. This may be due to the presence of a solid structure located under the surface of the night star.
Today, in various articles on the Internet, the hypothesis about the artificial origin of the satellite is included in a list called “Secret Facts about the Moon.” However, it is generally accepted this moment is considered a theory that assumes an “earthly beginning.” According to it, approximately 4.5 billion years ago our planet collided with a space object similar in size to Mars. He knocked out a piece of matter, which later became a satellite. However, the final point has not yet been made in the dispute: the available information is not yet enough to confidently say that everything happened in this way.
Multicolored
One of the American astronauts, looking at the Moon from the window for the first time spaceship, compared its surface to sand on a dirty beach. From Earth, the satellite doesn't look so sad. Interesting Facts about the Moon are also related to its visible color.
Most of the time the month is ash-gray, but history knows of cases when a blue Moon appeared in the sky. Color is associated with the appearance of an additional “filter” that prevents the passage of light rays. This is possible during extensive fires or volcanic eruptions. The particles, which are large compared to air molecules, allow the scattering of light waves whose length corresponds to the blue color and its shades. Such a case was recorded in 1950, when, as a result of a fire in the peatlands, a blue Moon hung over Albert (a province in Canada).
Two full moons
The expression “blue moon” has another meaning. Since the night star goes through all its phases in less than 28 days, sometimes there are two full moons in one month. The second was called the “blue moon”. The phenomenon occurs slightly less frequently than once every 2.72 years. The closest one will be in July 2015: the first full moon is on the 2nd, and the blue moon is on the 31st.
Bloody
The most interesting things about the Moon and its color in the coming year can be learned by looking at the sky on April 4 and September 28. The blood moon will rise these days. The satellite acquires such an ominous hue due to the refraction of the Sun’s rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. The glow of the Moon, in principle, always represents the reflected radiation of the daylight. The difference these days is that the full moon coincides with sunset or sunrise. Red is the very color in which the daylight appears before us, sinking below the horizon or rising above it.
Double reflected
Another phenomenon is associated with the emitted light, not uncommon, but interesting. Everyone has known about the Moon since childhood: it sequentially goes through 4 phases and only in one of them, on the full moon, can you admire the completely illuminated satellite. However, it also happens that a month hangs in the sky, and sometimes the entire disk is visible and quite clearly. This is the so-called ashen light of the Moon. The phenomenon occurs either some time before the new moon or shortly after it. The satellite, illuminated only in a small part of itself, is nevertheless completely visible, since part sunlight first dissipates into earth's atmosphere, then falls on the surface of the Moon, and is then reflected back to our planet.
Based on the characteristics of the satellite’s ashen light, predictions are made about changes weather conditions. The possibility of predictions exists due to the connection of the optical phenomenon with the nature of cloudiness in that part of the Earth that is currently illuminated by the Sun. In European Russia, the bright ashen light, which results from the reflection of rays from cyclonic activity in the Atlantic, heralds precipitation in about a week.
Farther and farther
Interesting facts about the Moon are not limited to optical phenomena. Another interesting point is connected with its distance from Earth. The satellite is getting further and further from our planet every year. Over twelve months, the distance increases by 4 cm. The removal of the satellite is a consequence of the gravitational-tidal interaction between it and our planet. The Moon is known to cause tides on Earth, not only on the water, but also in the crust, less noticeable in amplitude, but with a much longer wavelength. They, in turn, influence the satellite: due to some features of our planet around its axis, tidal waves are somewhat ahead of the satellite. As a result, everything contained in such waves affects the movement of the satellite, attracting it and causing it to orbit the planet faster. This is the reason for the change in its distance from the Earth.
Bright memory
There was a time when scientists, due to lack of data, had little understanding of Unknown facts of that period ceased to be a secret thanks to the successful flights of spacecraft with astronauts on board. However, those studying the satellite were not always lucky. Some of the astronauts died during flight preparations. A tiny monument, only 8 cm high, was erected to him on the Moon. Attached to it is a list of all the astronauts who gave their lives in the name of science.
Eternity
Both this monument and the traces of the astronauts who walked on the surface of the Moon, as well as a photo of relatives left by one of the crew members, will remain intact on the Moon for many centuries. The satellite of our planet has no atmosphere, there is no wind and water. Nothing can cause traces of human presence to quickly turn to dust.
Near future
NASA is making ambitious plans to develop the satellite. In 2010, the Avatar project appeared, which involved the creation of special robots equipped with a human telepresence function. If the project is implemented, scientists will not need to fly to the Moon. To study its features, it will be enough to put on a special remote presence suit, and all the necessary manipulations will be performed by a robot delivered to the satellite.
View of the Earth
The moon always faces us with the same side. The reason for this is the synchronization of the satellite's orbital movement and its rotation around the Earth. One of the most memorable sights that American astronauts saw when they set foot on the surface of the Moon was the view of Earth. Our planet occupies a significant part of the satellite sky. Moreover, the Earth hangs motionless, always in the same place, but first one side or the other is visible. Over time, as a result of the same gravitational-tidal interaction, the rotation of our planet around its axis is synchronized with the movement of the Moon in its orbit. The satellite will “freeze”, stop moving across the sky, and the Earth will “look” at it with only one side. At the same time, the distance separating the two cosmic bodies will stop increasing.
These are 10 interesting facts about the Moon. The list, however, is not exhausted by them. Reappeared in last years interest in the satellite will still bear fruit, and the already existing facts about the Moon, partially mentioned in the article, will be replenished.
It is likely that one of them will be a base on the Moon, which is planned to be created for the development of mineral resources, observation of earthly processes and, of course, the satellite itself.
The moon has haunted human minds since the beginning of time. And even today, in the era of progress, you can find many outlandish stories and statements about the Moon on the Internet. They range from fantastical conspiracy theories to truly strange anomalies that scientists cannot yet explain.
#1 Size and orbit are perfect
There have been several total eclipses of the Sun by the Moon over the past few years. In fact, the fact that people can observe such a phenomenon is a real miracle. It has long been known that the Moon is the only satellite that allows one to observe a total eclipse from the surface of the planet. In the case of the Earth, this all has to do with the relative sizes of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth's distance from them. The Moon is about one-quarter the size of Earth. And now for the weird stuff.
The diameter of the Moon is approximately 400 times smaller than the diameter of the Sun. But the Moon is also 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun. Also, the Moon has a perfect circular orbit around the Earth, unlike all other known satellites. This creates the impression that the Moon and the Sun are the same size in the sky. Although, most likely, this is a coincidence, its chance is several million to one. Conspiracy theorists never tire of proving that the reason for this is simple: the Moon is an “artificial object”, and its dimensions and orbit are precisely calibrated.
#2 Hollow
Carl Sagan stated in his book Intelligent Life in the Universe in 1966 that natural satellite planets cannot be hollow. Most agreed with him. So scientists were shocked when seismic equipment on the Moon detected significant reverberations on November 20, 1969, after the Apollo 12 lunar module landed on the lunar surface. Not only did the moon “ring like a bell,” it did so for over an hour. If you believe the data, this suggests that the Moon is hollow.
During the next mission, the reverberation was measured again. This time the effect was even greater, and the “ringing” lasted more than three hours. Despite speculation that the Moon may indeed be hollow, based on NASA's own experiments, the results were largely suppressed by NASA in subsequent years.
#3 Strange craters
The Moon is simply dotted with craters that formed over the billions of years of its existence. Oddly enough, these craters are the same in depth. According to what scientists know today, these craters should vary greatly in depth, but on the Moon this is not the case. Most agree that this is simply an anomaly, but some argue that the Moon is artificial or hollow and consider these craters to be proof of their theory.
Allegedly, under the rocky lunar surface there is an “inner shell” consisting of some kind of metallic material that can absorb impacts and distribute them evenly across the entire surface, thereby preventing the appearance of deep craters. According to some, this shell also prevents damage to whatever may lie underneath.
#4 Artificial structures
NASA says "man-made" structures on the Moon are optical illusions in most cases, and the result of blurry, low-quality images in other cases. However, enthusiastic UFO enthusiasts claim that these images are irrefutable evidence of alien and man-made structures on the Moon. Even in a couple of minutes on the Internet you can find a bunch of similar photos, some of which are quite convincing. But reliable evidence, of course, is not enough.
One of these anomalies is called "Shrapnel" and can be found in NASA photographs. In the photo you can see an artificial structure rising above the surface. The fact that it casts a shadow causes many UFO researchers to dismiss the idea of an optical illusion. Interestingly, a relatively short distance away is another alleged "Tower" structure, estimated to be around 11 kilometers tall.
#5 Artificially placed in orbit
There is no doubt that life on Earth will change dramatically without the Moon. For people it may even become impossible. The moon stabilizes earth's oceans and the polar regions of the planet, which creates seasons that allow most areas of the planet and life on it to flourish.
However, many ancient writings appear to describe a time before the moon appeared in the Earth's skies. Some believe that the Moon is an artificial structure specifically placed in a precisely calculated orbit to stabilize conditions on Earth.
#6 Alien intelligence base
If some unknown ancient civilization purposefully placed the Moon in Earth's orbit, then the only logical assumption would be that an extraterrestrial race did it. For example, controversial researcher and author David Icke argues that the Moon is artificial satellite, transmitting signals from Saturn to our planet and creating the “matrix” that is our reality.
#7 Unique rotation
Everyone has heard about the dark side of the Moon, which people have never seen. Many people think that the Moon always faces the Earth with one side because it does not rotate. But it would be more accurate to call this part of the Moon the "far side" since the Moon actually rotates. The Moon makes a full circle around the Earth in 27.3 days, and it rotates around its axis in 27 days. This “synchronized rotation” causes one side of the Moon to always “move away” from our planet.
Again, the Moon is unique in this compared to the moons of other planets. From the point of view of conspiracy theorists, this was done specifically so that the “dark side of the moon” would be ideal place to create an alien base.
#8 The Real Story of the Moon
In his controversial and widely ridiculed book Letters from Andromeda, author and researcher Alex Collier claimed to have uncovered real story Moons. But the way he received his information alarmed people a little - the author allegedly received “telepathic messages” from an alien who lived in the Zeneta constellation. According to Collier, the Moon was actually a huge spaceship that arrived here millions of years ago. She brought "reptilians, human-reptilian hybrids, and the first humans to set foot on Earth."
Collier claims that the Moon is empty and there are several secret entrances on the surface leading inside. Beneath the surface of the Moon there is a metallic shell that hides the remains of ancient alien bases left over from a huge war 113,000 years ago. Today these bases are occupied by a secret world government that worked together with an extraterrestrial race.
#9 Story before the moon
Many ancient scriptures speak of a time “before the moon.” For example, Aristotle wrote about Arcadia, stating that the earth was inhabited "before there was a moon in the sky above the earth." Likewise, Apollonius of Rhodes spoke of a time “when not all the ‘balls’ were yet in heaven.”
The Chibcha tribe of Colombia also have similar oral legends that begin with the words: “In the earliest times, when the moon was not yet in the heavens.” The Zulus have legends that claim that the Moon was “pulled” from an unimaginable distance.
#10 Secret missions
Alex Collier is not the only person who claims there are bases on the Moon. There have been numerous such claims over the past two decades, often purporting to come from anonymous sources who leaked secret documents to the public. One of the recent claims of a base on the Moon was made by Dr. Michael Salla, who is working with the Chinese space agency on a manned mission to the Moon. If successful, it will be the first time humans have walked on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Salla claims the base is part of an “extraterrestrial military-industrial complex.” Even stranger are his comments that NASA actively bombed such bases as well as "ancient artifacts and objects" to conceal their existence. In addition, he stated that secret lunar exploration missions are being carried out by a "secret world government" that has entered into a secret treaty with an unknown extraterrestrial race.
Share with friends on social networks:
1. The Moon is a planet, a satellite of the Earth, and the only one. The Moon is 384,403 kilometers from Earth.
2. The Moon is the second brightest object in the Solar System, after the Sun itself.
3. The Moon is the closest satellite of the planet to the Sun, since Mercury and Venus, which go in front of our Earth, have no satellites at all.
4. The moon appeared as a result of a collision. Scientists believe the Moon was formed when a huge object the size of the planet Mars crashed into our planet about 4.5 billion years ago. The impact was so great that huge chunks of the earth's rocks were thrown into space. Under the Earth's gravity, the ejected debris gathered in low-Earth orbit and formed our satellite. As soil studies show, it consists of less dense material that contains little iron.
5. The word Moon comes from the Proto-Slavic word “Luna”, which translates as “Light”.
Craters on the surface of the Moon
6. The entire surface of the Moon is in craters, because unlike the Earth, it does not have its own atmosphere that would protect it from cosmic bodies in the form of meteorites. When a meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere, friction with the air causes it to ignite and, in most cases, burn up before reaching the surface. On the Moon, everything that falls on its surface leaves huge imprints in the form of craters.
7. Craters on the surface of the Moon were left by meteorites 4.1 - 3.8 billion years ago. They are still visible only because, geologically, the Moon is not as active as the Earth.
8. Among the lunar craters, Hertzsprung is the largest, reaching a diameter of 591 kilometers. It is located on the dark side of the Moon, so it is not visible from Earth. On the visible side of the Moon, the largest crater in size belongs to the Baia crater, with a diameter of 287 kilometers.
9. And the largest crater on the Moon is called Aitken, which is about 2000 kilometers in diameter. It is also the largest crater in the entire solar system.
10. Craters of the Moon were first named after famous scientists, artists and explorers, and later by names American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts.
Moon from the ISS
11.The moon is not actually a perfect ball. It is rather egg-shaped due to the influence of Earth's gravity. In addition, its center of mass is not in the center of the cosmic body, but approximately two kilometers away from the center.
12. Due to the fact that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, day and night change instantly, i.e. there is no twilight.
13.Today many scammers are trying to make money on the Moon. They sell plots on the Moon and give you a certificate saying that you have the right to populate several hundred square meters of lunar space. But even if the settlement of the Moon begins, such a certificate will not have any legal force, and will be considered invalid.
14. For the first time, plots on the Moon began to be sold by the American company The Lunar Embassy, founded by Dennis Hope, at a price of $20 per acre (approximately 4046 sq.m.). This American, having studied the UN Convention on Outer Space, concluded that it does not contain a single instruction banning the ownership of stars and planets by private individuals. In 1980, he proclaimed himself the owner of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Io, Venus and began trading in “star” areas.
15. The official name of the earth's moon is Luna. When our satellite was named Moon, astronomers did not know that there were other planets in our solar system with the same satellite moons. Now the moons in our system are distinguished simply: our satellite is called the Moon, with a capital letter “L”, and the moons of other planets with a small letter.
16.The Moon is the fifth largest satellite solar system. Actually the most large moon is the satellite of Jupiter - Ganymede, which has a diameter of 5262 km, followed by the satellite of Saturn - Titan, Jupiter - Callisto and Io, and finally the Moon with its average diameter of 3475 kilometers.
17. In order for it to be as light at night 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.
18. The Earth may have other natural satellites. The Cruithney asteroid moves in orbital resonance with the Earth and completes a full revolution around the planet every 770 years.
19. Gravity on the surface of the satellite is only 17% of the earth’s. Imagine that your weight is 100 kg. Standing on the surface of the Moon, you would weigh only 17 kg. You could walk 6 times the distance and carry 6 times the weight of Earth. Using only the power of your own muscles, you could make short flights over the surface of the Moon.
20. Due to the low gravity on the Earth's satellite, fine and hard lunar dust with the smell of gunpowder can penetrate everywhere. In astronauts it caused symptoms similar to hay fever. Penetrating into spacesuits and shoes, it significantly damaged them.
Moon eclipse
21. Solar eclipse happens in our lives quite often, but catching a lunar eclipse where you are is almost impossible. This chance comes once every few hundred years.
22. The moon has an atmosphere called the exosphere. It consists of helium, neon and argon.
23. The Moon from Earth appears to be the same size as the Sun. Of course, the Sun is much larger than the Moon, about 400 times, but at the same time it is 400 times farther from us. But this was not always the case. Billions of years ago, the Moon was closer to the Earth and appeared much larger than the Sun.
24. There are fresh traces on the surface of the Moon. Man walked on the moon more than four decades ago, and yet fresh imprints are still there. Is this fact evidence of the existence of life on the planet? No, these are just traces of astronauts. Since there is no wind or water on the Moon, traces there can persist for millions of years.
25. The astronauts on the Moon immediately noticed that their shadows were much darker than those on Earth. The atmosphere that scatters light to create shadows on Earth is absent on the Moon. The Earth is illuminated enough by the Sun that shadows still appear, but these shadows are much harder to see than on the Moon.
26.The Earth's satellite is more like a planet. The Earth and Moon are a double planet system, similar to the Pluto + Charon system.
27. There are moonquakes on the Moon, but compared to those on Earth, they are very weak. Their maximum rating was 5.5 points on the Richter scale. The causes of lunar “earthquakes” have not yet been clarified.
28. People always see the same side of the Moon. The Earth's gravitational field slows down the Moon's rotation around its axis. Therefore, the rotation of the Moon around its axis occurs in the same time as its rotation around the Earth.
29. It became possible to see the far side of the earth’s satellite only after October 7, 1959. On this day the Soviet space station Luna 3 took its first photograph.
30. back side The moon is more mountainous compared to the one visible from Earth. This is explained by the force of gravity of the Earth, which has led to a thinner crust on the side facing our planet.
Christopher Columbus
31. Christopher Columbus, during his 4th expedition, used a total lunar eclipse to save his crew from starvation. It happened in America on February 29. The Indians of Jamaica, where the travelers were forced to spend a year, over time began to supply them with provisions worse. To frighten the aborigines, on the day of the eclipse, Columbus announced to them the wrath of the gods for their negligence and went to the ship’s cabin “to pray for forgiveness.” At the end of the eclipse, he announced that the Indians were forgiven. Food supplies have been resumed.
32. The Moon is moving further and further away from the Earth. Initially, the Earth's satellite was 22,000 kilometers from its surface, and now it is almost 400,000 kilometers away. Every year, the Moon's orbit moves about 4 centimeters from Earth, meaning that in just 500 million years, the Moon will be 23,450 km further away than it is now.
33. The only person buried on the Moon is the famous American astronomer and geologist Eugene Shoemaker. Health problems prevented him from making interplanetary flights. After his death, his ashes were carried in a capsule by the Lunar Prospector interplanetary research station to the Moon in 1998.
34. There are very large temperature fluctuations on the Moon. In the area of the lunar equator, temperatures range from minus 173 at night to plus 127 degrees Celsius during the day.
35. More than 400 trees growing on Earth were brought from the Moon. The seeds from these trees were taken by the Apollo 14 crew in 1971, orbited the Moon, and returned to Earth.
Neil Armstrong
36. Over the entire existence of the Moon, 12 people have visited it. Only a small group of astronauts have ever set foot on the surface of the Moon. The first was Neil Armstrong in 1969, the last to trample the surface of the Moon was Gene Cernan in 1972. Since then, there have been no human missions to the surface of our satellite.
37.People haven't landed on the moon for 46 years. However, NASA is working on new rockets, Ares I and Ares V, that will be able to carry payload to the Moon and back.
38. The moon has its own time zone. It's called "lunar standard time," but it doesn't correspond to simple time on Earth. Time on the Moon is completely different than on Earth: a year on the Moon is divided into twelve “days.” Each “day” is named after an astronaut who set foot on the planet. "Days" are divided into 30 "cycles", which in turn are divided into hours, minutes and seconds. The calendar began when Neil Armstrong first walked on the Moon: Year 1, Day 1, Cycle 1 began on July 21, 1969 at 02:56:15 UTC.
39. 200 tons of debris on the Moon is space debris. It was left by NASA astronauts who landed on the planet during the Apollo spacecraft flights in 1969-1972. Another part of the debris remains from uncrewed flights carried out by space centers in the USA, Japan, India, Russia and European countries.
40. Today, smartphones are much more powerful than the computers used to land the Apollo on the moon.
Blood Moon
41.The bloody “queen of the night” happens during full lunar eclipse. During this period, the Earth is on the same line between the Moon and the Sun. Light waves The red spectrum (as the longest) of sunlight, refracted in the earth's atmosphere, gives the “night sun” a crimson hue.
42. There is no moisture on the Moon and the soil there is absolutely dry, so nothing can grow there. But lunar soil samples brought back to Earth show that lunar soil is quite suitable for growing plants.
43. The dark spots that we can see on the Moon are called Lunar maria. In total there are 17 seas, 1 ocean (ocean of storms) and 4 bays. But despite this, as mentioned above, there is no water there and all these seas are empty. It was previously believed that there really were seas there, but this version was later refuted.
44.The lunar seas were lowlands filled with basaltic lava, but now this lava has long since hardened. By the way, Neil Armstrong, who was the first to set foot on the surface of the Moon, landed on the surface of one of the seas, which was called the Sea of Tranquility.
45. After the members of the Apollo 11 crew arrived from the Moon to Earth, they had to go through customs. The column “Declared cargo” included moon rocks and moon dust.
Monument to the Lost Cosmonauts on the Moon
46. The crew of the Apollo 15 spacecraft in 1971 erected something like a monument to the fallen cosmonauts on the Moon, namely an aluminum figurine in a spacesuit and a plaque with the names 14 dead astronauts. Our Yuri Gagarin was also among them.
47. There is dancing dust on the Moon. It hovers above the surface of the Moon (more intensely at sunrise or sunset). Dust particles rise upward due to electromagnetic forces.
48. A “blue moon” is a repeat full moon in a calendar month. It is observed once every 2.7154 years. The name of this event is determined not only by the color of the night star, but also by the translation of the English idiom “once in a Blue Moon”. In the Russian version, this corresponds to “after the rain on Thursday” (not soon or never).
49. The moon doesn't have its own magnetic field. However, the stones brought by the astronauts nevertheless have magnetic properties. Where does this paradox come from? Scientists put forward 2 theories about this: the magnetic field disappeared due to the movement of the iron core of the Moon and its collision with meteorites.
50. The oldest debris on the Moon are from spacecraft that were sent to study the planetary surface and determine whether ships could land on it. In 1960, it was hypothesized that the planet's surface was likely covered in quicksand, which could absorb space rocks that fell onto its surface. Automatic probes installed on the Moon indicated the opposite: they showed that man was able to land on the planet.
The Moon is the satellite of the Earth, closest to the Earth heavenly body.
Radius - 1,738 km.
Age - 4.6 billion years.
The Moon completes a full revolution around the Earth in 27.3 days.
The surface of the Moon covers 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, a certain ominous Demon from the Abyss, or, in other words, a huge cosmic body that approached the Earth to provoke cataclysms on a planetary scale. There are grounds on which we can assume that this body has not disappeared anywhere, it has become 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 on our horizon to become a regulatory element of the Earth-Moon system, or the mechanism of its influence on us.
The Moon is abnormally large, and its composition is so different from the Earth’s that you just want to say it’s a stranger. There are a great many hypotheses that, to one degree or another, explain its origin; on the contrary, there is not a single one that is convincing. 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 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 don’t pay attention to it, busy with current affairs: it flies, and let it fly. It doesn't seem to bother anyone. This, of course, is not entirely true, or, more precisely, not true at all.
Since ancient times, the moon has attracted human attention; in ancient times it was worshiped as a deity, and poets have always addressed lines to it. It has long been the object of study by astronomers and appears as a key part of many esoteric teachings. The Moon owes its name to the Romans; the first astronomer to calculate the distance to the Moon in Earth radii is believed to be Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BC), the first to populate it with Selenite lunatics was Plutarch, the first to examine craters through a telescope was Galileo . Hundreds of scientists, starting with Kant and Descartes, puzzled over how it could appear in the sky. From the beginning of the 17th century, with the growth of people’s technical capabilities, it was formulated a large number of theories about this, but not a single one 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 emerged for the development and use of the Moon. True, as often happens, the more information appeared, the more open questions there were 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, both 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, for example, is the mileage of a good passenger car, at which it is time to think about engine overhaul, unless you have a Mercedes, which has an engine with a lifespan of a million kilometers.
In general, the distance to the Moon is great, but it cannot be compared with the distance separating our planet, say, from the Sun or even the closest planet to us - Venus. Rockets created on Earth can overcome it in just three days. Light will take less than two seconds to do the same.
Although the Moon rotates around its axis, it is constantly facing the Earth with one side, because the Earth also rotates, only much faster, in addition, at the satellite center shifted heaviness, like the children’s toy “Vanka-Vstanka”. The gravitational moment that appears when moving in orbit forces it to turn towards the Earth with a more massive part. Interestingly, 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 there are shadows to match it. What cannot 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 satellite's diameter is almost 3,500 km, it is only four times smaller than Earth's. I propose to pay attention to this fact first of all. 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. All three satellites of Jupiter are approximately the same size: Callisto, Ganymede and Io, their diameters range 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 is 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. Besides Earth, only Mars has them. At the same time, tiny, on a cosmic scale. The diameter of both moons of Mars is only 27 and 16 km. True, despite their size, scientists have many questions about them. But now we are interested in the Moon, which, as it has just become clear, is not only too, but garishly large.
The discrepancy between the sizes of the Earth and the Moon gave rise to 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 from the Planetary Research Institute (USA). At the same time, it is the Moon that acts as the controlling element of the system, while the Earth (and everything on it, naturally) is presented as the controlled element.
Moon influence
How did such an opinion arise, and was Dr. W. Hartman too hasty in considering the Moon to be a regulator of a unified system? Judge for yourself. Here are some facts.
The gravitational pull of the Moon causes water to be drawn towards itself. Two moving bulges form in the World Ocean, 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 full revolution around the Earth in 24 hours 50 minutes; in the coastal zone of the World Ocean there is water every 12 hours 25 minutes. begins to arrive, 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 is. Under the influence of lunar gravity, by the way, the land is also deformed, it’s simply not so noticeable here. Hard surface extends almost half a meter towards the Moon.
But that is not all. The tidal influence of the lunar gravitational field is experienced by the liquid environments of all living organisms inhabiting the Earth without exception, including ours, since 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 no secret for the doctors of the Celestial Empire long before the Chinese emperors decided to build their Great Wall to protect yourself from nomads. Ancient Chinese medical treatises directly linked the daily 2-hour activity of all 12 main 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 the assumption that in the center of the Earth’s core there is a growing crystal, the heart of a kind of energetic framework of the planet, in the rays of which human civilization is developing. We talked about the energy fields that surround us on all sides, and that every object of nature, and you and I are no exception, has its own vibration frequency, and about periodically appearing local geophysical resonances, which, quite possibly, can be provoked from the outside gravitational and energy fields space objects.
The superposition of gravitational and magnetoelectric effects affects the liquid crystalline medium saturated with microelements. In the human body, it is based on 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 activity of the body, and this relates to almost all aspects of life, from eating to sex or sleep. Furthermore, the successive phases of the Moon throughout the month set the rhythm of life on Earth. The mechanisms of this phenomenon are poorly understood or not studied at all; it simply occurs.
Here are a couple of examples. It is known that many of the inhabitants of the ocean, mollusks and fish, lay eggs only during the full moon. It is also known that as the Moon stays (grows) the juices in plants move from the roots to the tops. IN agriculture It has long been noticed that the “tops” should be picked during the full moon; it is during this period of time that they are the most juicy. The harvest of herbs, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, and berries also occurs during the full moon. On the contrary, during the waning of the Moon, the juices go to the roots, so at the new moon it is recommended to collect “roots”: potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, etc. An example that this phenomenon directly affects people is the menstrual cycle, the average frequency of which is - 28 days, fully corresponds to the lunar cycle. In the end, today the nature of sleepwalking is absolutely unclear.
Another aspect. Scientists, after analyzing statistical data on natural disasters over the past 900 years, found that the most powerful 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. Long-term observations of the lunar surface indicate that these are not coincidences. Almost every cataclysm on Earth was observed there. There is no clear explanation for this.
Mystical influence of the moon
And, meanwhile, we have not even touched upon yet 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 series and various shows on TV, they had neither a radio nor a telephone, and they had no sockets, but only candles instead of electric lamps and darkness approaching from dark corners. On the other hand, the myths left by our ancestors are an integral part of universal human culture; you cannot just abandon it so casually, you will agree. It would be impolite and also stupid. So, whether our ancestors were dense or not, it should be noted right away: most beliefs regarding the influence of the Moon on people, no matter what continents they were created on, are gloomy.
Yes, there is another factor of lunar influence, controversial and inexplicable to this day, and, at the same time, downright sinister. Let's pay attention to the same werewolves, mythological creatures capable of turning into various animals. without exaggeration, they have terrified people for centuries; legends dedicated to them have been written on all continents. Although, they appeared under different names. The Slavs called them volkulak (wolf-claws, wolfhounds), the ancient Germans - werewolves, the Japanese - kitsune, Africans - anioto - leopard people, the Romans and Greeks - lycanthropes. This did not change the essence of the matter - in all cases it was about werewolves.
I repeat, we are free to laugh heartily at the superstitions that tormented our ancestors, but here’s what’s significant: medical experiments conducted in America have shown that moonlight not only causes disturbing dreams, but also, if it hits the face directly, can provoke depression and mental disorders. So, after this, don’t trust your grandmother’s recipes, which prescribed hanging the bedroom windows with thick curtains during the full moon. Here is another “dispelled prejudice.” Who knows whether the ominous legend about werewolves itself will not dissipate in a similar way, having moved from television screens and books, much closer than we would like. Moreover, lycanthropy is a very real disease. It’s just not clear how it is treated...
Here let’s pay attention to this: over centuries, the ideas that have been formed have associated werewolfism with two factors: lunar phases and magical practices. About the fact that gravitational and magnetoelectric lunar influence affects the liquid crystalline environment saturated with microelements of all organisms inhabiting our planet, we said earlier. Such an effect exists, despite the fact that neither its mechanisms nor its limits, so to speak, have been absolutely studied by science, but 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 complement these ideas, endowing a person with as many as seven bodies, while the densest, physical, serves as a kind of frame for the other six, which are called “subtle.”
Kabbalah paints approximately the same picture. The universe appeared as a result of the emanation of 10 sephiroth (which some researchers interpret as dimensions), three upper and seven lower, each of which had its own density. At the same time, the highest 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 that explain 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 pure 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 hypothesis of centrifugal separation put forward at the end of the 19th century (it is also called the “daughter”), the Moon and the Earth at the beginning constituted one wildly rotating hot mass, the speed of which increased as it cooled and contracted. Finally, this mass scattered into two parts: a larger and a smaller one. The titanic dent, which 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 one of which was the prohibitive speed with which the Earth had to rotate for such a separation to occur - a full 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, and also not small. The appearance of such an angular momentum in the formed Earth does not currently find any intelligible explanation.
Another hypothesis (the so-called hypothesis of joint accretion, formulated by Emmanuel Kant in the middle of the 18th century) states that the Moon was formed from dust and matter almost at the same time as the Earth, over time turning into a natural satellite. Sometimes this hypothesis is called the “sister” hypothesis. It looks quite convincing (and in terms of age, the Moon and the Earth are the same age), if not for this “but”: The structure of the satellite is absolutely not similar to the Earth.
If the size of the Moon as a satellite of the Earth is abnormally large, then its mass is even more surprising. Despite the fact that the lunar diameter is only 4 times smaller 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 the Earth's. You might think that the satellite consists 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 earth's crust), while heavier rocks are concentrated on the side facing our planet. From the above, the conclusion suggests itself - the Moon is hollow inside.
Most of the lunar surface is covered with 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 an excellent 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.
It may be much warmer below. By the way, space objects like the Moon are ideal vehicle. Their multi-kilometer basalt shell makes them invulnerable even to large asteroids, and there is plenty of space inside for various equipment. And the absence of an atmosphere and weak gravity make the Moon an excellent place for both an observatory and a space shuttle landing terminal.
Humanity has been thinking about this for a long time, although the possibilities are not yet the same. For some reason, America curtailed its lunar exploration program back in the first half of the 1970s, and the Union did not follow through with it either. Chinese in Lately They are threatening to implement a grandiose project to explore the Moon, but for now the words remain declarations, nothing more. True, I repeat, the absence of an atmosphere makes the surface unsuitable for life. Well, it doesn’t matter if it’s possible to live inside. Moreover, for a civilization capable of establishing a base here, it will not be big problems extract the required amount of oxygen from minerals. As for the needs for water, there is more than enough of it nearby, on Earth.
Perhaps every person has looked at the Moon at least once in his life.
And even schoolchildren know certain facts about it. We have collected for our readers less well-known, but no less interesting facts about the satellite of our planet.
1. The moon was created as a result of a collision
The moon appeared as a result of a collision. Scientists believe that the Moon was formed from debris from the Earth and a space object the size of Mars after their collision.
2. 206 thousand 264 Moons
In order for it to be as light at night 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 Earth's gravitational field slows down the Moon's rotation around its axis. Therefore, the rotation of the Moon around its axis occurs in the same time as its rotation around the Earth.
4. The far side of the moon
The far side of the Moon is more mountainous compared to the one visible from Earth. This is explained by the force of gravity of the Earth, which has led to a thinner crust on the side facing our planet.
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 Cruithney
The Earth may have other natural satellites. The Cruithney asteroid moves in orbital resonance with the Earth and completes a full revolution around the planet every 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, geologically, the Moon is not as active as the Earth.
8. There is water on the moon
There is water on the moon. The Earth satellite has no atmosphere, but does have frozen water in shadowed craters and beneath the soil surface.
9. The moon is not a perfect ball
The moon is not actually a perfect sphere. It is rather egg-shaped due to the influence of Earth's gravity. In addition, its center of mass is not in the center of the cosmic body, but approximately two kilometers away from the center.
10. Crater named...
The lunar craters were first named after famous scientists, artists and explorers, and later after the names of American and Russian cosmonauts.
11. Moonquakes
On the Earth's satellite there are... moonquakes. They are caused by the gravitational influence of the Earth. Their epicenter is located several kilometers below the surface of the Moon.
12. Exosphere
The moon has an atmosphere called the exosphere. It consists of helium, neon and argon.
13. Dancing Dust
There is dancing dust on the Moon. It hovers above the surface of the Moon (more intensely at sunrise or sunset). Dust particles rise upward due to electromagnetic forces.
The Earth's satellite 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 tides on Earth
The moon causes the ebb and flow of the tides on Earth. The Moon's gravitational pull affects our planet's oceans. The highest tides occur during a full or new moon.
