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Our moon.
THE
MOON is a satellite of
the Earth and was discovered by man when they first looked
at the night sky...
On a serious note
the Moon is about 3,476 km/2,160 mi
in diameter, with a mass 0.012, that's about one eightieth that
of Earth. The moon has always interested man
and in January 2004 President Bush (USA) pledged man will have a
permanent base on the moon. The moon is
significant to Earth in many ways, not only as it is our
very own natural satellite, but it also affect the vast seas and oceans that cover our
planet making tides due to the gravitational pull of the
moon.
Lunar
Stats
The
lunar surface gravity is only 0.16 (one sixth) that of
Earth and orbits the Earth at 384,400
km/238,855 mi. It's orbit is west to east in
our night sky taking 27.32 days (the sidereal month ) to
orbit Earth. On
its sunlit side, temperatures reach 1100C/2300F, but
during the two week lunar night the surface temperature
drops to -1700C/-2740F. It
spins on its axis with one side permanently turned toward
Earth and the side of the moon that faces us is one that
has enchanted man since the darn of time. The Moon's
rocky composition, with a surface heavily scarred by meteorite impacts,
with some craters up to 240 km/150 mi across, have made
mans imagination run riot. It
is been described as many things from a smiling face to a lump of cheese,
sadly the Moon has no
atmosphere or water and is not made of cheese (sorry
Gromit, no cheese). Rocks brought back by astronauts show the Moon is 4.6 billion years
old and that is about the same age as Earth.
The
lunar surface that faces us is illuminated in a cycle of
phases called waxing and waning. This effect is
coursed by the orbit, that turns the side facing us away
from the sun every 29.53 days. Waxing is period
from new moon when the surface is in full shadow to full
moon when the surface is fully illuminated.
Waning is the cycle back to new moon. The
origin of the Moon is still open to debate.
Studies
of the Moon
The
Lunar surface was first
photographed from the Soviet Luna III
Oct 1959 and it was the first vehicle from which the dark side of the moon was observed.
Much of our information about the Moon has been derived
from this and other photographs and measurements taken by
US and Soviet Moon probes. Alot of information was
also gathered thanks to the geological samples brought
back by US Apollo astronauts,
and from experiments set up by the US astronauts with the 1969 to 1972 Apollo program. Apollo landings, marked a huge step for man in
space when Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the
first men to walk on the Moon . Sadly since
the end of the Apollo Program in 1972 only probes have preformed studies
of our neighbour, but no other manned missions been
undertaken.
Useful
Links
UK
SEDS 
Liverpool
Museum
The
British Astronomical Association
The
European Space Agency
NASA
Liverpool
Astronomical Society
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