Full Moon

Today's the day ................................. for ten facts about the moon

1. The Moon formed out of the Earth
Scientists now think that the Moon was formed when a Mars-sized object crashed into our planet about 4.5 billion years ago. A huge spray of material was ejected into space that eventually gathered itself into a sphere and formed the Moon.

2. The Moon only shows one face to the Earth
Although the Moon used to rotate in the sky, over a long period, gravity slowed down its rotation so that it finally stopped and it always displays one face to the Earth.

3. The Moon is slowly drifting away
Although the orbit of the Moon seems nice and stable, our only natural satellite is actually drifting away from us at a rate of 4 centimeters a year.

4. The Moon looks the same size as the Sun
This is just an amazing coincidence because of course, the Sun is much much bigger than the Moon. In fact, the Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, but it's also 400 times further away.

5. The Moon causes most of the tides... but not all
The sun is helping out too which is why we get very high and low tides from time to time when the two of them line up.

6. Gravity on the Moon is only 17% of the Earth
If you weighed 100 kg on the Earth, you would feel like you only weighed 17 kg on the Moon. You would be able to jump 6 times further and carry objects 6 times as heavy.

7. The official name for the Moon is... the Moon
When the Moon was given its name, astronomers didn't know that there were moons orbiting other planets and so they just called it the Moon.

8. The Moon is the 5th largest natural satellite in the Solar System
The largest moon is Jupiter's Ganymede (5,262 km), followed by Saturn's Titan, Jupiter's Callisto, Jupiter's Io, and finally, the Earth's Moon with a mean diameter of 3475 km.

9. Only 12 people have ever stepped onto the surface of the Moon
The first person to ever walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969 and the last person was Gene Cernan on December 14, 1972.

10. We're going back to the Moon
Astronauts are expected to set foot on the surface of the Moon again in 2019 when NASA will set up a permanent research station.


If you're still reading, that should set you up nicely for your next pub quiz .........................