The Moon is the cosmic body closest to Earth. However, despite this, the satellite of our planet hides a large number of secrets and mysteries that will be interesting to learn about.

The most interesting facts about the Moon that humanity knows or guesses will be given below. And at the end of the list you will probably say that you didn’t know this.

• Despite the fact that our satellite has weak geological activity, earthquakes occur on it, and some of them reach sensitive 5-6 points on the Richter scale. Moonquakes have a diverse nature - collisions with meteorites, temperature changes due to the influence of the Sun. There are also particularly strong tremors, the nature of which is still unclear. There is a hypothesis that they occur under the influence of Earth's gravity. According to members of the Apollo 11 expedition, during such activity, a sound similar to the ringing of a bell is heard for some time.
• Contrary to popular belief, the Moon does not revolve around the Earth, but the Earth and the Moon revolve around the same point, which is called the barycenter. Thus, according to some, the Moon cannot be considered a satellite of the Earth, since the Moon and Earth are a double planet. This is also supported by the size of the Moon, which is a quarter of the diameter of the Earth. Other planets have much smaller satellites.
• There is debris on our satellite, the total weight of which is approximately 200 tons. And, of course, all this garbage was generated by human activity - these are the remains of satellites, all-terrain vehicles, rovers and other equipment that were launched from Earth.
• Astronomer Eugene Shoemaker dreamed of becoming an astronaut and visiting the Moon. However, his health did not allow him to realize his dream. Therefore, after his death, he bequeathed to scatter his ashes on the surface of the satellite. NASA did this in 1998. The crater where this happened was named Shoemaker.
• Moon dust has the smell of burnt gunpowder and is very dangerous for equipment. Due to the low gravity on the satellite, dust grains can reach high speeds, and their structure is very aggressive. Any item, even one made of durable metal, will be significantly worn out if exposed to such dust for a long time. During the Apollo 11 expedition, dust wore out and damaged the integrity of the astronauts' spacesuits, penetrated into the spacecraft and interfered in every possible way.
• Many people think that moving on the Moon is easy because of the low gravity. However, it is not. During the expedition, the leg of an astronaut in a heavy spacesuit could sink into the ground to a depth of 15 cm. And long jumps, due to the low force of gravity, became uncontrollable and dangerous, because there are deep craters on the surface.

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• There are several theories about the origin of the Moon: the satellite used to be part of the Earth and separated from it; the satellite used to be a free body, but the earth captured it with its gravity; The moon appeared from the dust of debris that was formed from the collision of the Earth with another planet. The last theory is the most reliable today.
• When telling the most interesting facts about the Moon, it is necessary, of course, to mention its influence on humans. It is reliably known that during the full moon some people suffer from insomnia, others may have nightmares.
• Due to the lack of atmosphere on the satellite, the shadows are clear and contrasting. The contrast reaches the point that during the expedition the astronauts could not fully work with parts of the ship that were in the shadows. And if you hide in the shadows yourself, you may not see your own legs and arms.
• The moon does not have a magnetic field. However, the stones brought from the expedition were magnetic. They probably got onto the surface of the satellite from other cosmic bodies.
• Most craters appeared on the surface about 4 billion years ago. On Earth, these scars would have been overgrown long ago, but on the Moon there is no such strong geological activity, so they are still visible.
• This is the only cosmic body where man was.
• Our satellite has water in the form of ice, but no atmosphere.
• Yes, it is generally accepted that there is no atmosphere there, but in fact there is one, but it is very rarefied - 10 trillion times less dense than on Earth. Consists of hydrogen, neon, helium and argon.
• An unusual phenomenon can be observed on the Moon - dancing dust. Dust floats in the air for some time. It rises due to the magnetic influence of other cosmic bodies, and most often occurs during sunset and sunrise.
• The ebb and flow of tides on Earth occur under the influence of the Moon's gravity. The satellite attracts water.
• The climate of our satellite is far from resort-like. During the day at the equator it can be hot at 127 degrees, and at night it can be cool - up to -170 degrees Celsius.

• 29.5 Earth days are the same as a day on the Moon.
• In 1969, the first and only human landing on the Moon was carried out as part of the Apollo 11 expedition. Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon. Today, progress has come so far that most smartphones have more processing power than the computers used on Apollo 11.
• The first device that landed on the surface belonged to the USSR and was called Luna-2. This happened in 1959.
• The satellite is visible to the inhabitants of the Earth only from one side. But this does not mean that the satellite does not rotate around its axis. It rotates. And its rotation period up to a second coincides with the rotation period of the earth. Therefore the other side is never seen.
• The most interesting facts about the Moon should also concern solar eclipses, which are visible from Earth. A total solar eclipse is a rare phenomenon, and it occurs because of an amazing coincidence - the moon is 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun, and exactly 400 times smaller in diameter than the Sun. Thus, when the Moon is in line with the Sun, they appear to be the same size from Earth.
• In the 70s, the UN declared that no state could become the owner of the Moon. However, the cunning American Dennis Howes immediately realized that we were talking only about states, and nothing was said about individuals. Therefore, he spontaneously became the owner of the Moon, founded a lunar embassy and sent his diplomatic note to other states. No matter how ridiculous the idea may seem, Howes made billions of dollars by selling plots on the Moon.
• In 1835, the Sun newspaper published a publication about John Kershel, an astronomer who allegedly assembled a powerful telescope and through it was able to see fabulous unicorns, flying creatures, and beavers without a tail on our satellite. The issue sold out very quickly and was profitable for the publication. And even after the hoax was exposed, the newspaper's circulation did not fall. This event was called the “Great Moon Hoax.”

The mistress of the night sky has always attracted human attention. Numerous signs, rituals, and beliefs of people are associated with it. Many lunar secrets have already been revealed. However, interesting facts about the Moon, which scientists cannot unambiguously explain, continue to excite people’s minds.

1. For the first time, areas 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 transported in a capsule by the Lunar Prospector interplanetary research station to the Moon in 1998.
4. 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.
5. The bloody "queen of the night" occurs during a total lunar eclipse. During this period, the Earth is on the same line between the Moon and the Sun. Light waves of the red spectrum (as the longest) of sunlight, refracted in the earth's atmosphere, give the “night sun” a crimson hue.
6. The night star does not 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.
7. There are moonquakes on the moon, however, compared to earthly ones, 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.
8. The “Fallen Astronaut” monument, measuring only 8 cm (by Paul Van Heijdonk), was erected on August 1, 1971. at the landing site of the Apollo 15 crew. The plaque next to it contains the names of 14 fallen space explorers. Among them is Yu. Gagarin.
9. A "blue moon" is the second 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).
10. The difference in daily temperatures on the Moon ranges from -100°С to +160°С. On Earth, the record daily temperature drop occurred on January 23, 1916 in America (Montana): from +6.7 to -48.8 degrees Celsius.
11. 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.
12. Dark spots on the surface of the Moon that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye are called maria.. They are lowlands, the bottom of which is filled with dark solidified lava. There is no water in them. The first time a person set foot on the Moon was on the territory of the Sea of ​​Tranquility on July 21, 1969.
13. There are many craters on the moon. The giant among them is Hertzsprung, reaching a diameter of 591 km. 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 belongs to the Bayi crater (287 km).
14. Where is the “far away kingdom, thirtieth state” familiar from children’s fairy tales located?? By simple calculations we get 3*9=27, 3*10=30. The first number is the sidereal period of the Moon's revolution around the Earth. 30 days is its synodic period (relative to the Sun).
15. The Moon is moving away from the Earth by 4 cm per year. As a result, its orbit is not a circle, but a smoothly increasing spiral.

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What do we know about Moon? The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, the second brightest object in our sky, and the only cosmic body that humans have set foot on besides the Earth. In most cases, you will only hear these 3 facts when you ask a random person about the Moon. It turns out quite strange, because throughout human history our gaze has constantly been turned to the Moon, it has constantly been the subject of controversy and discussion, a huge number of secrets and mysteries have hidden around it, many of which we have already solved, the other part remains to be revealed...

In ancient Egypt the moon was called " I", and in Ancient Greece - " Selena".

Question origin of the moon for a long time haunted scientists. Many different theories have been put forward: from the formation of a protoplanetary disk from the remains, to the capture of a passing asteroid by the Earth’s gravitational field. There were also completely contradictory and sometimes absurd theories, in the manner of artificial origin. The answer to the question of the origin of the Moon was found where it was least expected - underground at a depth of several kilometers. The rocks lifted from the bowels of the planet during the drilling of the Kola superdeep well were like two peas in a pod similar to those that the Soviet space automatic station delivered to Earth from the surface of the Moon in the early 70s. This marked the beginning of a new theory, which only 30 years later was confirmed and received public recognition - the Moon is a fragment from the collision of two young protoplanets of the Earth and Thea, which occurred 4.36 billion years ago at the dawn of the formation of the Solar System.

The Moon was created as a result of the largest collision in Earth's history. This happened 4.36 billion years ago at the dawn of the formation of the Solar System. The fragments from the collision were thrown into low-Earth orbit, where they remained under the influence of the gravitational interaction of the planet.

The young Moon found itself in an orbit 60,000 km from Earth. Every year the night star slowly but steadily moved away from the Earth - by about 4 cm per year. This was due to the gravitational interaction of the two bodies, forcing the Moon closer with each passage by the planet, but at the same time pushing Selene further away after each such approach. Today, the Moon's orbit is 384,467 km away. Based on this, it would be more correct to represent the trajectory of our satellite in the form spirals, moving along which the Moon is constantly moving away from us.

A visual diagram of the Moon’s movement (orbital changes) over the past 4.3 billion years.

Our generation and about a dozen generations before and after ours are, in a sense, very lucky - we can observe perfectly regular solar eclipses, such during which the Moon completely covers the solar disk, leaving only the corona. Nowadays, Selena is at an ideal distance from the planet; before, the distance was smaller and the Moon blocked the Sun along with the crown, turning the day into a dark night; in the future, the satellite will move away and will no longer be able to block the light of our star.

An ideal solar eclipse - the Moon completely covers the solar disk, but leaves the corona visible.

Over 100 years, an average of 237 solar eclipses occur on Earth, of which only 63 will be total.

Only 63 of the 237 eclipses will be total, the rest will be partial or annular. The photo shows a partial eclipse.

The diameter of the Moon is 3476 km (at the equator, the polar diameter is 6 km less), which makes it the 5th largest satellite in the Solar System. The largest moon is Ganymede, orbiting Jupiter, with a diameter of 5264 km.

The Moon is the 5th largest satellite in the Solar System.

The internal structure of the Moon is similar to the structure of the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), it also consists of a solid inner and liquid outer core, a mantle and a solid crust on the surface.

Approximately 16% of the Moon's surface is occupied by so-called lunar seas. In reality, these objects have nothing in common with the seas; they are craters from fairly large-scale collisions with asteroids, comets and other space debris. The energy of such collisions was enough to cause massive eruptions of magma onto the surface, which solidified into a darker color than the rest of the landscape.

The Ocean of Storms is the largest dark gray area on the visible side of the Moon.

Have you ever noticed that the Moon appears much larger when low on the horizon than when it is high in the sky? This phenomenon is generally recognized and is called "", the effect is believed to manifest itself as a result of some kind of optical illusion, but the mechanism of its formation still remains a mystery.

Illusion of the Moon over the sea. Scientists have not yet been able to explain this interesting phenomenon.

One of the most interesting features of the Moon is that the period of its rotation around its own axis completely coincides with the period of rotation around the Earth. As a result, we only see one side of the Moon, always the same. Another, dark side, on the contrary, is always hidden from us. This phenomenon is called tidal capture; in the vastness of the Solar System, and the Universe as a whole, this is a fairly common phenomenon, for example, both satellites of Mars, all large satellites of gas giants and many discovered exoplanets have synchronous rotation.

One of the first images of the dark side of the Moon

For the first time, humanity saw the dark side of the Moon on October 7, 1959 - the Soviet automatic interplanetary station " Luna-3"took the first photographs. The landscapes of the reverse side were strikingly different from the visible one, but did not stand out in anything special. From the photographs, the predominance of continents over the seas and the abundance of craters were determined, 9 of which were the largest on Selene.

And this is a modern photograph of the far side of the Moon

The most common misconception is: “there is no atmosphere on the Moon.” The Moon has an atmosphere! But it is extremely rarefied, its density is 10 trillion times less than that of Earth. Therefore, the sky on our satellite is always black, the Sun does not shine brightly there, and even during the day all the stars are visible.

The lunar atmosphere contains such an insignificant amount of gases that the sky is absolutely transparent.

The gravitational force of the Moon constantly influences the Earth and this influence is so great that slows down the planet(meaning the speed of rotation around its axis). So, on the young Earth 4.3 billion years ago, a day lasted less than 6 hours, 3 billion years ago - 9 hours, 100 million years ago, during the time of dinosaurs - 23 hours.

Over 4.3 billion years, the Moon has increased the Earth's day by 18 hours.

The gravitational force of the Moon is also responsible for ebb and flow. Every time Selene approaches Earth, it causes a tide, attracting water masses. And when it moves away, the tide ebbs. In the open ocean, the maximum water can rise to is 40 cm, but near the coastline, as a result of the tidal wave reaching the bottom, the height can increase significantly.

The highest tidal waves are off the coast of Canada, their height reaches 18 meters.

For the globe, the magnitude of the gravitational force of the Sun is almost 200 times greater than the gravitational force of the Moon, but at the same time, the tidal forces generated by the Moon are almost twice as powerful as those generated by the Sun.

There were more than ten lunar rovers on our satellite, launched by the USSR, the USA and China. Several dozen space stations and probes explored the Moon, making many important discoveries and close-up photographs. Six manned expeditions were able to successfully land on the lunar surface. More than 380 kg of lunar soil was delivered to Earth.

NASA astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the second person to set foot on the Moon. 1969, Apollo 11 mission

It can also be noted that China has begun a long-term space program, which includes not only the landing of humans, but also the construction of habitable lunar bases.

Chinese habitable lunar base project. It is not yet known exactly when this will become a reality, but China intends it very seriously.

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Evgeniy Martynenko

A familiar picture of the evening sky: twinkling stars, flying satellites and planes, a silent and mysterious moon. Imagine for a second that the moon has disappeared. Suddenly and forever. It seems that absolutely nothing terrible happened. We can manage without her. But no. There will be chaos and cataclysms on earth. Why?

a site about extremely curious, little-known and interesting facts about the Moon.

It just so happens that the Earth has only one natural satellite. It was formed almost 50 million years after the emergence of the entire solar system. This is about 4.613 billion years ago.

The Earth has only one natural satellite

Imagine that our planet is one huge. Then the tidal wave would sweep across the Earth in 24 hours and 50 minutes. This is how long the moon rises and sets.

Video about revealing facts about the Moon

When we look at the sky, both the Sun and the Moon appear to be the same size. Although in reality the Sun is 400 times larger. This happens because the Moon is about 400 times closer to the Earth. That's the math.

If you look at the Earth from the Moon, it is 4 times larger than the full moon looks from the Earth. And it never moves across the “lunar” sky, it stands strictly in one place (again, due to synchronous rotation).

The trace left by one of the astronauts on the surface of the Moon will not disappear for millions of years. The complete absence of wind and wet precipitation will reliably preserve everything and almost forever.

Moon Goddesses

The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped moon goddesses.

Both our planet and the Moon rotate absolutely synchronously

Each phase of the moon has its own:

1. New – Diana
2. Full – Selena
3. Dark Side - Hecate

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 everyone and only for peaceful purposes.
• A compass on the surface of the Moon is completely useless due to the lack of a magnetic field.
• Your mobile phone is 400 times more powerful than the one that helped land astronauts back in 1969.

A mysterious and silent satellite of the Earth. I wonder what you think of him when you look at the sky?

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