Posted by For centuries, we have been fascinated by the moon from its glowing beauty in the night to its role in astrology, folklore and science. It’s an object of mystery and wonder. However, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Here are 10 amazing facts about the Moon that you may not know.
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The Moon began with an explosive collision
The prevailing idea is that the Moon was formed in a violent event between the proto-Earth – an early-stage Earth that was much bigger than it is today – and an object (labelled ‘Theia’) about the size of Mars. The debris then was ejected into space and then coalesced to form the Moon.
Modern research suggests that the Moon is made of material from the early Earth’s crust. Dubbed the ‘Giant Impact Hypothesis’ this collision is believed to have happened 4.5 billion years ago and would have been 100 million times larger than the event that killed the dinosaurs.
2. It used to look much bigger
The Moon started out around ten times closer to the Earth than it is now. Most computer simulations suggest that the Moon could have been 12-19 times closer at a distance of just 20,000- 30,000 km, compared to 384,000 km today.
The moon is still spinning away because of the transfer of energy from the rotation and tidal bulges of the Earth. The Moon gets 3.78cm further away each year. That’s roughly the same rate at which your fingernails grow.
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3. Moon dust smells like gunpowder
There is a lot of dust on the surface of the Moon and the Apollo astronauts found their suits covered with it when they climbed into the modules.
Harrison Schmitt said that the dust smells like gunpowder. The dust even caused some of the astronauts to have some kind of ‘lunar hay fever’. They were sneezing and had congestion where it took a few days to recover.
4. Surface temperatures reach boiling point
Since the Moon has no protective atmosphere, the surface experiences extreme temperatures from incredibly cold on the night side while the sunny side reaches boiling point.
According to NASA, the Moon’s temperature can span from 123 degrees Celsius to -223 degrees Celsius. This means that the surface temperature is 107 degrees Celsius in the day and -153 degrees Celsius at night.
5. Those craters can unlock space history
Without an atmosphere, the Moon is not protected from meteorites. Therefore, it is full of craters which really help us to explore more ‘natural history’ of our Solar System.
There are around 190 identified impact craters on Earth with many currently covered by water and vegetation but there are millions on the Moon including 5000 larger than 20km in diameter.
6. You always see the same of the Moon
The Moon rotates around its axis, but because that rotation lasts about 27 days which is roughly the same as the 27.32 days the Moon takes to orbit the Earth. Therefore, you only ever see one face of the Moon.
This phenomenon is called ‘tidal locking’ or ‘captured rotation’. It means the other side of the Moon was completely invisible before the Space Age. Whereas the near side has lunar maria which are large, dark plains that often cover impact basins while the far side is more cratered and rugged, with a thicker crust and less evidence of volcanic activity.
7. The Moon causes tidal bulges
The tides on Earth are the result of bulges in the water caused by the gravitational forces of the Moon. Essentially, the Moon pulls up water on one side of the Earth. On the other side where its gravitational forces are weaker, the water bulges in the opposite direction. Therefore, those bulges move around the oceans as the Earth rotates, causing high and low tides around the globe. The tides are also influenced by gravity from the sun, without the moon we would still have tides but they would be smaller.”
8. Scientists have discovered Moon water
India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission discovered water close to the poles of the Moon and NASA has found water in the soil.