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Almost everything about the moon. The most unusual and little-known facts about the moon. Where did the lunar crater come from

In 1609, after the invention of the telescope, humanity managed to consider its space satellite for the first time in detail. Since then, the moon is the most studied cosmic body, as well as the first one who managed to visit a person.

The first thing to deal with - what is our satellite? The answer is unexpected: although the moon is considered a companion, technically it is the same full-fledged planet as the Earth. She has large sizes - 3476 kilometers in diameter at the equator - and weight of 7.347 × 10 22 kilograms; The moon is only a little inferior, the smallest planet of the solar system. All this makes it a full-fledged participant in the gravitational system of the Moon-Earth.

Known and another such tandem in Solar system, and Charon. Although the whole mass of our satellite is a little more cell of the mass of the mass of the Earth, the moon does not turn around the earth itself - they have a common center of mass. And the proximity to our satellite generates another interesting effect, tidal capture. Because of him, the moon is always turned to the ground with the same side.

Moreover, from the inside the Moon is arranged as a full-fledged planet - she has a bark, mantle and even the kernel, and in the distant past there were volcanoes on it. However, there were no longer anything left of the ancient landscapes - for four and a half billion years of the history of the Moon, millions of tons of meteorites and asteroids were falling on it, which were elegant to her, leaving crater. Some blows were so strong that he broke through her Corra up to the mantle itself. Driven from such clashes formed the lunar seas, dark spots on the moon, which are easily distinguishable with. Moreover, they are present solely on the visible side. Why? We will tell about it next.

Among the cosmic bodies, the moon affects the land is the strongest - except for the sun. The lunar feeds that regularly raise the water level in the world ocean is the most obvious, but not the most powerful impact of the satellite. So, gradually moving away from the ground, the moon slows down the rotation of the planet - a sunny day grew out of the original 5 to the modern 24 hours. And the satellite serves as a natural barrier against hundreds of meteorites and asteroids, intercepting them on the nettle to the ground.

And no doubt, the moon is a lacquer for astronomers: both lovers and professionals. Although the distance to the moon is measured up to a meter with laser technologies, and the soil samples have repeatedly brought to the ground, there is still a place to open. For example, scientists hunt for lunar anomalies - mysterious outbreaks and radiances on the surface of the moon, not all of which is an explanation. It turns out that our satellite hides much more than visible on the surface - let's figure it out in the moon secrets!

Topographic map of Luna

Characteristics of the Moon

Scientific study of the moon today is more than 2,000 years old. The movement of the satellite in the sky of the Earth, the phase and the distance from it to the ground were described in detail yet by the ancient Greeks - and internal structure The moon and her story are investigated to this day with spacecraft. Nevertheless, the century of the work of philosophers, and then physicists and mathematicians gave very accurate data on what our moon looks and moving, and why it is just such. All information about the satellite can be divided into several categories that are mutiferous from each other.

Orbital characteristics of the Moon

How does the moon move around the earth? If our planet was fixed, the satellite would rotate on an almost perfect circle, from time to time, slightly approaching and moving away from the planet. But after all, the earth itself around the Sun - the Moon has to constantly "catch up" the planet. And our land is not the only body with which our satellite interacts. The sun, located 390 times ahead of the ground from the moon, massive land of 333 thousand times. And even taking into account the law of reverse squares, according to which the intensity of any energy source drops sharply at a distance, the sun attracts the moon 2.2 times stronger than the Earth!

Therefore, the ultimate trajectory of the movement of our satellite resembles a spiral, and even not easy. The lunar orbit axis fluctuates, the moon itself is periodically approaching and distinguished, and on a global scale and flies at all from the ground. The same oscillations lead to the fact that the visible side of the moon is not the same satellite hemisphere, but different parts of it, which alternately turn to the ground due to the "satellite" of the satellite in orbit. These movements of the moon in longitude and latitude are called librations, and allow you to look back to the opposite direction of our satellite long before the first deposit with spacecraft. From east to West, the moon turns at 7.5 degrees, and from north to south - by 6.5. Therefore, you can easily see both poles of the moon.

Specific orbital characteristics of the moon are useful not only to astronomers and astronauts - for example, the photographers are especially appreciated by superlyump: the moon phase in which it reaches the maximum size. This is a full moon, during which the moon is in Periguee. We give the main parameters of our satellite:

  • The orbit of the moon is elliptical, its deviation from the perfect circle is about 0.049. Considering the oscillations of the orbits, the minimum satellite distance to the Earth (Perigee) leaves 362 thousand kilometers, and the maximum (apogee) is 405 thousand kilometers.
  • The overall center of the mass of the Earth and the Moon is located 4.5 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth.
  • Sideric month - full passage of the Moon in his orbit - passes in 27.3 days. However, for the total turnover around the Earth and the shift of the lunar phases is required for 2.2 days more - after all, during the time that the moon goes in its orbit, the Earth flies the thirteenth of his own orbit around the Sun!
  • The moon is in the tidal seizure of the Earth - it revolves around its axis at the same speed as around the Earth. Because of this, the moon is constantly turned to the ground with the same side. This condition is characteristic of satellites that are very close to the planet.

  • Night and day on the moon is very long - half of the world.
  • In those periods, when the moon comes out of the globe, it can be seen in the sky - the shadow of our planet gradually slides from the satellite, allowing it to illuminate his sun, and then closes it back. The change in the light of the moon, visible from the ground, is called it. During the new moon, the satellite is not visible in the sky, in the phase of the young moon, its thin sickle appears, which resembles the curl of the letter "P", in the first quarter of the moon is illuminated exactly half, and during the full moon it is noticeably best. Further phases are the second quarter and the old moon - occur in the reverse order.

An interesting fact: since the lunar month is shorter than calendar, sometimes in one month can be two full moon - the second is called the "blue moon". It is the same bright as the usual full - earth it lights at 0.25 suite (for example, the usual lighting inside the house is 50 lux). The earth itself illuminates the moon 64 times more - as many as 16 lux. Of course, all the light is not own, but reflected solar.

  • The orbit of the moon is inclined to the plane of the Earth's orbits and regularly crosses it. The collation of the satellite is constantly changing, varying between 4.5 ° and 5.3 °. The change of moon takes more than 18 years.
  • The moon moves around the earth at a speed of 1.02 km / s. It is much less than the speed of the earth around the Sun - 29.7 km / s. The maximum speed of the spacecraft, achieved by the probe for the study of the Sun "Helios-B", was 66 kilometers per second.

The physical parameters of the moon and its composition

In order to understand how big the moon and what it consists of, people needed a lot of time. Only in 1753, the scientist R. Boshkovic managed to prove that the moon had no significant atmosphere, as well as liquid seas - when coating the moon, the star disappears instantly when the presence of the opportunity to observe their gradual "attenuation". For another 200 years, it took that the Soviet station "Luna-13" in 1966 measured the mechanical properties of the surface of the moon. And about the opposite side of the moon was not known at all until 1959, until the device "Luna-3" failed to make her first pictures.

The Apollo-11 spacecraft team delivered the first samples on the surface in 1969. They also became the first people who visited the moon - until 1972, 6 ships landed on it, and 12 astronauts landed. In the accuracy of these flights, they often doubted - however, many critics items proceeded from them to beyond in ospace. The American flag, who, according to conspiracles, "could not wave in the airless space of the moon," is actually solid and static - it specifically strengthened with solid threads. It was done specifically in order to make beautiful pictures - a wireless canvas is not so spectacular.

Many distortions of colors and relief forms in reflections on the helmets of the Spaces, in which falsification were sought, were due to the golden spraying on glass that protects from ultraviolet. Soviet cosmonauts, who watched the broadcast of disembodied astronauts in real time, also confirmed the reliability of what is happening. And who can deceive the expert in his business?

And the full geological and topographic maps of our satellite are drawn up to today. In 2009 space station Lro (eng. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar orbital probe) not only delivered the most detailed shots of the moon in history, but also proved the presence of a large number of frozen water on it. He put a point in the discussion about whether people were on the moon, filming traces of the APOLLON team with a low orbit of the moon. The device was equipped with equipment from several countries of the world, including from Russia.

Since new cosmic states like China and private companies are connected to the study of the moon, fresh data comes every day. We collected the main parameters of our satellite:

  • The surface area of \u200b\u200bthe moon occupies 37.9x10 6 square kilometers - about 0.07% of the entire land area. It is incredible, but it is only 20% exceeds the area of \u200b\u200ball areas populated by man on our planet!
  • The average density of the moon is 3.4 g / cm 3. It is 40% less than the density of the Earth - primarily due to the fact that the satellite is devoid of many heavy elements like iron, which is rich in our planet. In addition, 2% of the mass of the moon falls on the regite - a small crumb of stone created by cosmic erosion and blows of meteorites, the density of which is lower than the ordinary breed. Its strata in separate places reaches tens of meters!
  • Everyone knows that the moon is much less than the Earth, which affects its gravity. Acceleration of free fall on it is 1.63 m / s 2 - only 16.5 percent of the entire force of attraction of the Earth. Jumping astronauts on the moon were very high, despite even the fact that their wanders weighed 35.4 kilograms - almost like knightly armor! At the same time, they still restrained: the fall in vacuum conditions was quite dangerous. Below - video of acstronaut jumps from direct broadcast.

  • The lunar seas covers about 17% of the entire moon - mostly its visible side, which is almost a third with them. They are traces of impacts of particularly heavy meteorites that literally resorted from the companion of his bark. In these places, the surface of the moon surface separates only a thin, semi-kilometer layer of frozen lava - basalt. Since closer to the center of any large cosmic body, the concentration of solids grows, in the lunar seas more metal than anywhere in the moon.
  • The main form of the relief of the moon is crater and other derivatives from shocks and shock waves, kotorasteroids. The lunar mountains and circus were constructed wonderful changed the structure of the surface of the moon beyond recognition. Especially strong, their role was at the beginning of the history of the moon, when she was still liquid - the fall lifted the whole waves of the molten stone. It was the cause of education luna seas: The side converted to the Earth was stronger than the concentration of heavy substances in it, because of which the asteroids influenced it stronger than on the cool opposite direction. The reason for such an uneven distribution of the substance was the attraction of the Earth, especially strong at the beginning of the history of the Moon, when it was closer.

  • In addition to the crater, mountains and seas, there are caves and cracks in the moon - the surviving witnesses of those times when the moon's depraced were also hot, like volcanoes acted on it. In these caves are often present water ice, like craters on the poles, because of which they are often considered as places for future lunar bases.
  • The real color of the moon surface is very dark, closer to black. On the whole moon, the most different colors come across - from turquoise-blue to almost orange. The light gray shade of the moon from the ground and in the pictures is due to the high illumination of the moon with the sun. Due to the dark color, the satellite surface reflects only 12% of all rays falling from our shining. Be the moon is lighter - and during the full moon it would be light as day.

How was the moon formed?

The study of Moon minerals and its history is one of the most severe disciplines for scientists. The surface of the moon is open to cosmic rays, and there is nothing to delay heat from the surface - therefore the satellite is rising to 105 ° C, and at night cool down to -150 ° C. Two-week duration of the day and night enhances the effect on the surface - and as a result, the moon minerals change beyond recognition. with time. However, it was possible to find out something.

Today it is believed that the moon is the product of a collision of a large embryo of the planet, Tayya, with the Earth, which occurred billions of years ago, when our planet was completely melted. The part of the planet collided with us (and it was the size of C) was absorbed - but its core, together with part of the surface matter of the Earth, was thrown over inertia into orbit, where it remained in the form of the moon.

This proves the deficit of iron and other metals already mentioned above - by that time when Tayya, pulled a piece of the earth, most of the heavy elements of our planet were pulled by gravity inside, to the kernel. This clash affected further development The Earth - she began to rotate faster, and the axis of her rotation leaned, which is why there was a possible change of seasons.

Then the moon developed as an ordinary planet - she had an iron core, mantle, bark, lithospheric plates and even their atmosphere. However, the small mass and poor on heavy elements the composition led to the fact that the subsoil of our satellite was quickly cooled, and the atmosphere was evaporated from the high temperature and lack of a magnetic field. However, some processes inside are still occurring - due to movements in the lithosphere of the moon sometimes lunoming occur. They represent one of the main dangers for future moon colonizers: their scope is reaching up to 5 and a half points on the Richter scale, and they are much longer the earth - there is no ocean capable of imagining the impulse of the movement of earthly subsoil.

Maintenance chemical elements On the moon is silicon, aluminum, calcium and magnesium. Minerals that form these elements are similar to earth and even found on our planet. However, the main difference between the minerals of the moon is the lack of exposure to water and oxygen generated by living beings, the high proportion of meteorite impurities and traces of exposure to outer radiation. The ozone layer of the Earth was formed long ago, and the atmosphere burns most of the mass of incident meteorites, allowing water and gases slowly, but confidently change the appearance of our planet.

Future of the Moon

The moon is the first cosmic body after Mars, which claims to priority colonization by man. In a sense, the Moon has already been mastered - the USSR and the United States left state regalia on a satellite, and orbital radio telescopes are hiding behind the back side of the moon from the Earth, the set of multiple interference. However, what awaits our satellite in the future?

The main process, which has already been mentioned more than once in the article - this is the removal of the moon due to the tidal acceleration. It happens quite slowly - the satellite flies no more than 0.5 centimeters per year. However, it is completely different here. Distinguished from the ground, the moon slows her rotation. Sooner or later, the moment may occur when the day on Earth will last as much as the lunar month - 29-30 days.

However, the removal of the moon will have its own limit. After his achievement, the moon will begin to approach the Earth with turns - where much faster than it was distinguished. To completely crash, however, it will not be possible. For 12-20 thousand kilometers from the Earth, its cavity of the Roche begins - the gravitational limit, in which the satellite of any planet can maintain a solid shape. Therefore, the moon on the amount will be broken by millions of small fragments. Some of them will fall to the ground, arranged a bombardment of thousands of times more powerful nuclear, and the rest form a ring like a ring around the planet. However, it will not be so bright - the rings of gas giants consist of ice, which is at times brighter of dark rocks of the moon - they will not always be visible in the sky. The Ring of the Earth will create the problem of astronomers of the future - if, of course, by that time on the planet, anyone will remain.

Colonization of the Moon

However, all this will happen in billions of years. And until then, humanity considers the moon as the first potential object for cosmic colonization. However, what is the meaning of the "Moon"? Now we will look at the coming prospects.

Many represent the colonization of the cosmos like the colonization of the Earth of the New Century, the search for valuable resources, their mining, and then delivery back home. However, this is not applicable to space - in the next couple of hundred years, the delivery of a kilogram of gold, even from the nearest asteroid, will be more expensive than its prey from the most difficult and dangerous for the work of the mines. Also, the moon is unlikely to perform the "country sector of the Earth" in the near future - although there are large deposits of valuable resources, there will be hard to grow food.

But our satellite may well be the base for further development of space in promising areas - for example, the same Mars. The main problem of cosmonautics today is restrictions on the weight of spacecraft. To run, you have to build monstrous constructions, which are needed tons of fuel - after all, it is necessary to overcome not only the attraction of the Earth, but also atmosphere! And if it is an interplanetary ship, then you need to fix it. It seriously shunters designers, forcing them to prefer economics of functionality.

The moon is suitable for the starting platform of space ships much better. Lack of atmosphere and low speed to overcome the attraction of the moon - 2.38 km / c against 11.2 km / from the ground - they make launches much easier. And the deposits of mineral satellites allow you to save on the weight of fuel - the stone on the neck of astronautics, which occupies a significant share of the mass of any apparatus. If you deploy the production of rocket fuel on the moon, you can run large and complex spaceshipscollected from the details delivered from the Earth. Yes, and the assembly on the moon will be much easier than in an near-earth orbit - and much more reliable.

The existing technologies for today make it possible if not completely, then partially implement this project. However, any steps in this side require risk. The investment of huge money will require research on the subject of necessary fossils, as well as the development, delivery and testing of modules of future lunar bases. And one estimated launch cost of even the initial elements is able to ruin the whole superpower!

Therefore, the colonization of the Moon is a subject matter of not so much the work of scientists and engineers, how many people in all over the world to achieve such valuable unity. For the true power of the Earth lies in the unity of mankind.

There is no secret: the periods of circulation of the moon around their own axis and around the Earth are the same, and for this reason the moon is facing the ground all the time only one side. In other words, the moon "turns" at the same speed as "flies" in our chaise, so in the same point in time we can observe the same picture on its surface.

At the same time, it is not entirely correct to say that we see "one side" of our planet's satellite - in fact about 59% of the surface of the moon are visible from the ground, that is, almost two thirds of the lunar disk. That part of the moon that is not visible to the observer from the ground, we call in the back of the moon.

For the first time the reverse side of the moon was photographed by the Soviet lunar station "Luna-3" in 1959.

Why do they say that there are seas and oceans on the moon?

Dark surfaces of the moon surface, which we can see from the ground, we are accustomed to call the "lunar seas". In fact, of course, these "seas" do not contain (and never contained) water, and the sonorous names came to us from antiquity, when ancient astronomers thought that the moon, as well as the Earth, had its own seas and oceans.

In fact, dark areas of the surface of the moon were formed as a result of volcanic eruptions and filled with basalt sediments, which seemingly much darker than the surrounding rocks.

Moon Mountains

But there are mountains on the moon, and the most extremely, and not only the mountains, but also the plateau. Externally, they differ from the lunar "seas" and the plains are lighter in the color.

The lunar mountains are similar to earthly outwardly, but unlike them, they were not formed as a result of tectonic processes, but as a result of clashes of giant meteorites with a lunar surface.

What would the surface of the moon look like, if it had an atmosphere and strength of gravity like the earthly (sweep)

Where did the lunar crater come from

On the surface of the moon, we can observe the crater - evidence of the bombing of its surface asteroids, comets and meteorites. There is an order of half a million crater with a size of more than 1 km.

Due to the lack of atmospheric, water and significant geological processes, the lunar craters were actually not subject to change and even the ancient crater were preserved on its surface. The largest crater on the moon is on the reverse side of the moon of its size of 2240 km in diameter and 13 km depth.

What is regolit?

The surface of the moon is covered with a layer of rocks shredded to a dust-shaped state as a result of bombardment by meteorites for millions of years. This breed is called regolit.

The thickness of the regabolite layer varies from 3 meters in the areas of the Moon "Oceans" to 20 m. On lunar plateau.

Is there water on the moon?

In the samples of the lunar breed of the Astronauts delivered to Earth, who participated in the "Apollo" mission and Soviet lunas, was not found.

Nevertheless, we know that the surface of the moon was bombed by comets from the moment of its formation, and as it is known to the nucleus of comets consist most of the ice. True, it does not add optimism - under the action of solar radiation, the water atoms should have been filled with hydrogen and oxygen atoms and due to the weak gravity of the moon just to destroy open space.

However, there is another point of view: as a result of mapping the surface of the Moon, the Clementine satellite launched by NASA in 1994, craters were found in the polar areas of the Moon, which are all the time in the shade, and in which water could remain in the form of ice.

Because of the great importance of the presence of water for the future colonization of the Moon, the lunar bases are planned to be placed in the indoor regions of our satellite.

Internal structure of our planet's satellite - Moon

What is under the surface of the moon?

The structure of the moon, as well as the structure of the Earth includes several pronounced layers: bark, mantle and core. Such a structure is believed to be formed immediately after the formation of the moon - 4.5 billion years ago.

The thickness of the lunar bark is, as believed, 50 km. In the thickness of the lunar mantle, lunaries occurs, but in contrast to earthquakes, which are caused by the movement of tectonic plates, the moon staining is caused by the tidal forces of the Earth.

The core of the moon, as well as the earth's core, consists of iron, but its size is significantly less and is 350 km in the radius. The average density of the moon is 3.3 g / cm3.

Is there an atmosphere on the moon

The atmosphere on the moon is - this is a fact, but it is so much discharged that it can be safely neglected - this is also a fact.

One of the sources of the lunar atmosphere are gases that are distinguished from the lunar bark, gas radon gas belongs to such gases. Another source of gases in the atmosphere of the moon are gases released by micrometeorites and solar wind bombardment.

Due to the weak magnetic and gravitational field of the moon, almost all gases from the atmosphere will be destroyed into open space.

Where did the moon come from?

There are several theories explaining the formation of the moon. Until recently, the main assumption of scientists was that the moon was formed as a result of centrifugal forces at an early stage of land formation. As a result of these forces, part of the earth's crust was thrown into open space and from this part and formed the moon.
Due to the fact that, as scientists believe, in the entire history of the Earth, our planet never possessed a sufficient speed of rotation to confirm this theory, such a point of view on the process of formation of the Moon is considered to be outdated.

Another theory suggests that the moon was formed separately from the Earth, and subsequently was simply captured by the gravitational field of the Earth.

The third theory explains that both the Earth and the Moon were formed from a single protoplane cloud and the process of their formation was held simultaneously.

Although the above three theories of the formation of the moon and explain its origin, but they all contain certain contradictions. The dominant theory of the formation of the moon, today, is the theory of a giant clash of proto-land with a celestial body size with a planet.

Moon - Earth satellite or her "younger brother"?

The moon is the largest satellite in the solar system and in its size it is only 4 times less than the earth and only a little inferior in the size of Mercury. In this regard, some scientists, a pair of Earth-Moon is considered not as a system of a planet - satellite, but as a double planet, since the size and weight of the moon is large enough.

This is the fact that the Center Rotation of the Land System - the Moon is not around the center of the Earth, but around the center of the masses of both celestial bodies, which is located at a distance of 1,700 km below the surface of the Earth.


Perhaps every person at least once in his life looked at the moon. And even schoolchildren know separate facts about her. We collected for our readers are not so famous, but no less interesting facts about our planet's satellite.

1. The moon appeared as a result of a collision


The moon appeared as a result of a collision. Scientists believe that the moon was formed from the debris of the Earth and the space object with the size of Mars after their collision.

2. 206 thousand 264 moon


In order for at night, it would be light as afternoon, about three hundred thousand moon would need, and 206 thousand 264 moon 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 the rotation of the moon around its axis. Therefore, the rotation of the moon around its axis occurs during the same time as its rotation around the Earth.

4. Reverse side of the moon


The reverse side of the moon is more mountainous, compared to the one that is visible from the ground. This is explained by the force of attraction of the Earth, which led to the fact that on the side turned to our planet, a thinner bark.

5. Seeds of lunar trees


More than 400 trees growing on Earth were brought from the moon. Seeds of these trees were taken by the crew "Apollo 14" in 1971, visited the orbit of the Moon and returned to Earth.

6. Asteroid cruisher


The earth may have other natural satellites. Asteroid Crewney moves in an orbital resonance with the ground and makes a complete turn around the planet for 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 can be seen so far only because the moon is not as active in the geological plan, like the Earth.

8. There is water on the moon


On the moon there is water. There is no atmosphere on the Earth's satellite, but there are frozen water in shaded craters and under the surface of the soil.

9. Moon is not an ideal ball


The moon is not really an ideal ball. It is rather egg-shaped due to the impact of the gravity of the Earth. In addition, its center of mass is not in the center of the cosmic body, but about two kilometers away from the center.

10. Crater named ...


The craters of the Moon first called them the names of famous scientists, artists and researchers, and later the names of American and Russian astronauts.

11. Lunaderyment


On the satellite of the Earth there is an earth ... Lunovynia. They are caused by the gravitational effects of the Earth. Their epicenter is located a few kilometers below the surface of the moon.

12. Ecosphere


The moon has an atmosphere called an exosphere. It consists of helium, neon and argon.

13. Dancing dust


There is a dancing dust on the moon. It boils over the surface of the moon (more intensely at sunrise or sunset). Dust particles rise up due to electromagnetic forces.


Earth satellite looks more like a planet. Earth and the moon are a system of a double planet, similar to the Pluto + Haron system.

15. The moon causes stuff and fed on earth


The moon causes tides and fed on Earth. The gravitational effect of the moon affects the oceans of our planet. The highest tides arise with a complete or new moon.

16. The moon is distinguished from the ground

One lunar day is 29.5 days on Earth. On the moon you need 29.5 terrestrial days so that the sun crosses the entire sky.

19. "ARES I" and "ARES V"


People did not land on the Moon for 41 years. However, NASA is working on new missiles "Ares i" and "Ares V", which will be able to deliver useful load on the moon and go back.

20. Progress


Today, smartphones are much more powerful than computers used to land "Apollo" on the moon.

Especially for those who are interested in geography and interesting facts, we have collected.

The familiar picture of the evening sky: shimmering stars, flying satellites and airplanes, silent and mysterious moon. And imagine for a second that the moon disappeared. Suddenly and forever. It seems that absolutely nothing terrible and did not happen. We will bypass without it. No. Chaos and cataclysms will come on Earth. Why?

site about extremely curious, little-known and interesting facts About the moon.

So it happened that the earth has the only natural satellite. It was formed almost 50 million years after the occurrence of the entire solar system. It is about 4.613 billion years ago.

Earth has a single natural satellite.

Imagine that our planet is one huge. Then the tidal wave would swell on the ground in 24 hours and 50 minutes. It is as long as the sunrise and the ignition of the moon.

Video about exposing facts about the moon

When we look into the sky, then the sun, and the moon seems to us the same in size. Although in fact the sun is 400 times more. This is because approximately 400 times the moon closer to the ground. Here is a mathematics.

If you look at Earth from the Moon, then it is 4 times more than the full moon with earth looks like. And it never moves through the "lunar" sky, it is strictly in one place (again, due to synchronous rotation).

The trail left by someone from astronauts on the surface of the moon will not disappear millions of years. The complete lack of wind and wet precipitation will reliably retain everything and almost forever.

Goddess Moon

The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped the lunar goddesses.

And our planet, and the moon rotate absolutely synchronously

Each phase of the moon is its own:

  1. New - Diana
  2. Full - Selena
  3. Dark side - Hekata

Short facts about the moon

  • We see only 59% of the surface of our satellite.
  • According to international jurisdiction, the surface of the moon is equal to international waters. It can be used by all and only for peaceful purposes.
  • The compass on the surface of the moon is a completely useless thing, due to the lack of a magnetic field.
  • Your mobile phone is 400 times more powerful than helped to land the astronauts in the distant 1969.

Mysterious and silent earth satellite. I wonder what you think about him when looking at the sky?

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The moon is the closest satellite of humanity in our journey in outer space, as well as the only heavenly body that we visited. Nevertheless, despite its relative proximity to us and seeming simplicity, our satellite continues to hide a lot of interesting secrets, and some of them have to know about them.

Despite the fact that, in fact, the moon is just a dead piece of rock with extremely low geological activity, the movement of the crust happens there. They are called moon stainings (by analogy with earthquakes).

There are four types of lunaries: the first three are deep lunas, fluctuations from the blows of meteorites and thermal lunaries caused by solar activity are relatively safe. But the lunaries of the fourth species can be rather unpleasant. Usually they constitute up to 5.5 points on the Richter scale - this is enough to start trembling small objects. There are approximately ten minutes. According to NASA, such mooncases make our moon "ring like a bell."

The most frightening thing in these moonlights is that we have no idea that it is what causes them. Earthquakes on Earth are usually caused by the movement of tectonic plates, but it simply not on the moon of tectonic plates. Some researchers think that they may have some connection with the tidal activity of the Earth, which, as it were, "pulls" the moon on themselves. However, the theory is not reinforced - tidal forces are associated with full moon, and the lunomyroculations are usually observed at another time.

2. Double planet

Most people are confident that the moon is a satellite. However, many argue that the moon must be classified as a planet. On the one hand, it is too large for the present satellite - its diameter is a quarter of the diameter of the Earth, so that the moon can be called the largest satellite in the solar system if it takes into account this ratio. At Pluto, however, there is also a satellite called Charon, the diameter of which is equal to half the diameter of the pluto itself. Only now Pluto is no longer considered a real planet, so I will not accept Charon into the calculation.

Because of its large sizes, the moon is not really in an near-earth orbit. Earth and the moon rotate each other around a friend and around a certain point in the center between them. This point is called the Barycenter, and the illusion that the moon is in the orbit of the Earth, is caused by the fact that the center of gravity is currently located inside the earth's crust. It is this fact that does not allow to classify the Earth with the Moon as a double planet, but in the future the position may change.

3. Lunar garbage

Everyone knows that the man on the moon was. But not everyone knows that a person (specially will write this word with a capital letter) used the moon as a standard picnic place; Having visited the astronauts on the moon left there a lot of garbage. It is believed that about 181,437 kg of artificial materials are resting on the surface of the moon.

Of course, not only astronauts are to blame - they did not specifically scattered over the moon wrapper from sandwiches and banana peels. Most of this garbage remained from various experiments, cosmic probes and lunar rovernors, some of which have been functioning so far.

4. Moonlight grave

Yudzhen Gin Schukeaker, famous astronomer and geologist, in his circles is somehow a legend: he developed methods scientific research Space influence, as well as came up with the receptions that Astronauts Apollonov used to explore the moon.

Sumyker himself wanted to become an astronaut, but could not get this work due to minor health problems. It remained the biggest disappointment throughout his life, but the noiseaker, nevertheless, continued to dream that someday would still be able to visit the moon himself. When he died, NASA fulfilled his most cherished desire and sent his dust to the moon with the Lunar Prospector station in 1998. His dust remains there displeased among the lunar dust.

5. Lunar Anomalies

In some pictures made by various satellites, very strange things are visible on the surface of the moon. It seems that on the moon there are artificial structures, the size of which varies from completely tiny, usually having a form of parallelepiped, to the obelisk to less than 1.5 km high.

Fans of paranormal phenomena even "found" among these objects a large castle, "hanging" high above the surface of the moon. All this seems to indicate a developed civilization, which previously lived on the moon and allegedly built complex structures.

NASA has never denied these strange theories, despite the fact that all the pictures are most likely forged by adherents of the "conspiracy theory".

6. Moonful dust

One of the most amazing and at the same time the most dangerous things on the moon is the moon dust. As everyone knows, the sand penetrates everywhere and on Earth, but dust on the moon - the substance is extremely dangerous: it is small, like flour, but at the same time very rude. Due to its texture and low gravity, it penetrates absolutely anywhere

NASA had numerous problems associated with the lunar dust: she ruled the boots of astronauts almost completely, penetrated the inside of ships and spaces and became the cause of the "lunar hay fever" at the unfortunate astronauts, if they were inhaled. It is believed that with long-term contact with the lunar dust any, even the most durable item can break.

Yes, by the way, this Devil's substance smells like a burning powder.

7. Low gravity difficulties

Although gravity on the moon is equal only to one sixth of earthly gravity, move along its surface - a real feat. Basz Oldrin said that it would be extremely difficult to establish on the moon of settlements: the feet of astronauts in bulky skaters drowned in the lunar dust almost 15 cm.

Despite the low gravity, the inertia of a person on the moon is high, so moving quickly or change the direction there is difficult. If the astronauts wanted to move faster, they had to portray themselves the clumsy kangaroo, which was also a problem, because the moon is full of crater and other dangerous objects.

8. The origin of the Moon

Where did the moon come from? There is no simple and accurate answer, but, nevertheless, science allows you to make several assumptions

There are five main theories about the origin of the moon. The theory of division claims that the moon was once part of our planet and separated from her at a very early stage of the Earth's history - in fact, the moon could be in place of modern Pacific Ocean. The theory of capture says that the moon is simply "wandering" through the universe, until it was captured by earthly gravity. Other theories say that our satellite is either formed from the wreckage of asteroids, or remained from the collision of the Earth with an unknown planet size with Mars

The most reliable theory of the moon is called the theory of the rings: Protoplanet (the planet, which is only formed) called Tayya faced with the Earth, and the garbage cloud formed after that the cloud eventually gathered together and turned into the moon.

9. Moon and Sleep

The influence of the moon and the earth is impossible to deny each other. However, the influence of the moon on people is a source of permanent discussions. Many believe that the full moon is the cause of the strange behavior of people, but science cannot give convincing evidence for or against this theory. But the science agrees with the fact that the moon can disrupt the cycle of human sleep.

According to the experiment conducted at the University of Basel in Switzerland, the moon phases affect the human sleep cycles strictly defined. Worst of all people sleep, as a rule, it is in full moon. These results can fully explain the so-called "lunar madness": according to the experiment and the assurances of many people, it is in full moon, the nightmares are most often shot.

10. Lunar shadows

When Nile Armstrong and Bazz Oldrin first stepped on the moon, they made an amazing discovery: the shadows on the moon are much darker of earthly shadows due to the lack of atmosphere. All lunar shadows are absolutely black. As soon as the astronauts stepped into the shadows, they could no longer see their own legs, despite the sunny disk brightly flaming in the sky.

Of course, astronauts were able to adapt to this, but such a contrast between dark and light surface areas still remained a problem. Astronauts noticed that some shadows - namely, their own - have halo. Later, they learned that a terrible phenomenon is explained by the opposition effect, in which some dark shadow zones appear a bright halo, provided that the observer looks at the shadows at a certain angle.

The shadows of the moon became the scourge of many missions "Apollo". Some astronauts found that the ship's maintenance tasks are impossible, because they could not see what they make their hands. Others thought they were randomly landed in the cave - such an effect was created due to the shadows discarded by the slopes.

11. Lunar magnetism

One of the most interesting secrets of the Moon is that the moon has a magnetic field. It is surprising that at the same time the stones that astronauts were first brought from the Moon to Earth in the 1960s, with magnetic properties possessed. Maybe stones have an alien origin? How can they have magnetic properties if there is no magnetic field on the moon?

Over the past years, science has established that the magnetic field at the Moon was once, but so far no one can say why it disappeared. There are two main theory: one states that the magnetic field has disappeared due to the natural movements of the moon iron core, and the second claims that this may be due to a series of clashes of the Moon with meteorites.