The moon is the closest cosmic body to us, the most visible object in the night sky. Not surprisingly, he is also the most studied and the only one on whose surface a man’s foot has stepped. However, one cannot say that everything is known about the moon. She still did not reveal part of her secrets. Some interesting facts about the moon have a generally accepted explanation, but periodically receive an alternative interpretation.
Night Light Features
The moon is the only companion of our planet. It makes one revolution around the Earth in about 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 a little less than 400 thousand kilometers. The most significant facts about the moon for children are, perhaps, a phase change 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 weather of the Earth and on the fate of people.
Legends about the moon
Earth satellite is the hero of many myths. Some of them explain the appearance of the moon in the sky, another tells what caused the phase change. Almost all nations, among others, honored the personification of the moon, god or goddess. In Greek mythology, it was primarily Selena, whose name was subsequently named after the science that studies the satellite of the Earth (selenology).
Legends about the moon, explaining why it is sometimes complete, then turns into a month, were often associated with tragic events in the life of the luminary. At the Balts, the Moon was punished by the formidable thunder god Perkunas for betraying the beautiful Sun, chopping it into pieces. In Siberia, a myth is known about how a night luminary descended to Earth and was caught by an evil sorceress. The sun tried to tear the moon out of the hands of the witch, but as a result, it broke into two parts.
There were numerous plots that explained clearly visible spots on the face of the star. For some peoples, this is a man sentenced to punishment, for others - a beast living on the moon.
Striking coincidence
Many legends explain solar eclipses. Today, listing interesting facts about the moon, its role in this phenomenon is often omitted as well-known. Nevertheless, it is the eclipse that clearly demonstrates one curious moment: 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 seems to be specially selected. Whether the incarnation of the ancient Greek Selena is located a little further or closer, or if its size were different, we would either not know what a total eclipse is, or would not be able to admire the solar corona. The moon "hangs" just so that the daylight periodically completely fits 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, about 400 thousand kilometers, and this is 400 times less than to the Sun, and the night luminary itself is also 400 times smaller than the daylight. These facts about the moon are often used as evidence of a theory of its artificial origin.
Hypothesis
A similar opinion in the 60s of the last century was expressed by Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, Soviet scientists. They reinforced their theory with information that all the craters, in a huge number covering the surface of the satellite, with different areas have about the same depth - no more than three kilometers. This may be due to the presence of a solid structure located below the surface of the night luminary.
Today, in various articles on the network, the hypothesis about the artificial origin of the satellite is listed under the title "Secret Facts about the Moon." However, at the moment, the theory that assumes a "terrestrial beginning" is considered universally recognized. According to her, about 4.5 billion years ago, our planet collided with a space object, the size of which is similar to Mars. He knocked out a piece of matter, which later became a satellite. However, the final point has not yet been set in the dispute: the available information is not yet enough to confidently state that everything happened in this way.
Multi-colored
One of the American cosmonauts, for the first time examining the Moon from the porthole of a spaceship, compared its surface with sand on a dirty beach. From Earth, the satellite does not look so dull. Interesting facts about the moon are also associated with its visible color.
Most of the time, the month is painted in ash gray, but there are cases in history when a blue moon appeared in the sky. Color is associated with the appearance of an additional “filter” that impedes the passage of light rays. This is possible during extensive fires or volcanic eruptions. Particles larger than air molecules allow light waves to scatter, corresponding in length to blue color and its shades. Such a case was recorded in 1950, when, as a result of a fire on peat bogs over Albert (a province in Canada), the Moon, painted in blue, hung.
Two full moons
The expression "blue moon" has another meaning. Since the night luminary passes through all phases in less than 28 days, sometimes two full moons fall out for one month. The second is called the “Blue Moon”. The phenomenon is observed a little less than once every 2.72 years. The nearest will be in July 2015: the first full moon is 2 numbers, and the blue moon is 31.
Bloody
The most interesting about the Moon and its color in the coming year can be found by looking at the sky on April 4 and September 28. A bloody moon will rise these days. The satellite gains such an ominous hue due to the refraction of the rays of the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere. Glow of the Moon, in principle, always represents the reflected radiation of a daylight. The difference these days is that the full moon coincides with the setting or rising of the sun. Red is the same color, “dressed” in which the daylight appears before us, dropping below the horizon or rising above it.
Twice reflected
One more phenomenon is associated with the emitted light, not uncommon, but interesting. Everyone has known about the Moon since childhood: it successively passes through 4 phases, and only in one of them, on the full moon, can one admire the fully illuminated satellite. However, it also happens that a month hangs in the sky, and sometimes the entire disk is viewed and sometimes quite clearly. This is the so-called ashen light of the moon. The phenomenon arises either some time before the new moon, or shortly after it. A satellite, illuminated only in a small part of it, is nevertheless fully visible, since part of the sunlight is first scattered in the earth's atmosphere, then falls on the surface of the moon, and then is reflected back onto our planet.
According to the features of the satellite's ashy light, forecasts are made about changes in 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. On the European territory of Russia, bright ashen light, which is the result of the reflection of rays from cyclonic activity in the Atlantic, portends precipitation in about a week.
Farther and farther
Interesting facts about the moon are not exhausted by optical phenomena. With its remoteness from the Earth, another curious point is connected. Every year, the satellite is getting farther from our planet. Over twelve months, the distance increases by 4 cm. The removal of the satellite is a consequence of the gravitational-tidal interaction of it and our planet. The moon, as you know, causes tides on Earth, not only on water, but also in the crust, less noticeable in amplitude, but with a much longer wavelength. They, in turn, act on the satellite: due to some features of the rotation of the Moon around the Earth and our planet around its axis, tidal waves are slightly ahead of the satellite. As a result, the entire mass of the Earth, which is enclosed in such waves, affects the motion of the satellite, attracting it and forcing it to rotate around the planet faster. This is the reason for the change in the orbit of the moon, its distance from the earth.
Bright memory
There was a time when scientists, due to lack of data, poorly understood what the moon is. Unknown facts of that period ceased to be a secret due to successful flights of spacecraft with astronauts on board. However, satellite learners were not always lucky. Some astronauts died in the process of flight preparation. They installed a tiny monument only 8 cm high on the moon. A list of all the astronauts who gave their lives in the name of science is attached to it.
Eternity
And this monument, and the traces of astronauts walking on the surface of the moon, as well as a photo of relatives left by one of the crew members, will remain on the moon in an untouched form for many centuries. The satellite of our planet has no atmosphere, there is no wind and water. Nothing can quickly turn the traces of human presence into dust.
Near future
NASA is making ambitious plans for the development of the satellite. In 2010, the Avatar project appeared, involving the creation of special robots equipped with the telepresence function of humans. 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 suit of remote presence, and all the necessary manipulations will be performed by a robot delivered to the satellite.
Earth view
The moon is always turned to us on the same side. The reason for this is the synchronization of satellite motion in orbit and its rotation around the Earth. One of the most memorable spectacles that American astronauts stepped on the surface of the moon saw was a view of the Earth. Our planet occupies a significant part of the satellite sky. Moreover, the Earth hangs motionless, always in one and the same place, but its one or the other side 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, the Earth will “look” at it with only one side. At the same time, the distance separating the two cosmic bodies will cease to increase.
These are 10 interesting facts about the moon. The list, however, is not limited to them. The interest in the satellite that has reappeared in recent years 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 the base on the moon, which is planned to be created for the development of minerals, observation of earth processes, and, of course, the satellite itself.