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The Moon

The Moon

Quick Moon Facts

  • Days to orbit Earth: 27
  • Date it was discovered: Unknown But known from ancient civilisations
  • Location: Planet earths only moon.
  • The moon is the second brightest object in our sky after the sun.
  • According to leading astronomers, Earths moon orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km or 238,855 miles. The journey would take three days by a NASA spacecraft.
  • There is no air to breathe on the moon.
  • Did you know that there are mountains on the moon and the tallest is mount Mons Huygen. It is 4700 metres tall. This is just over half the height of Mount Everest.
  • Does the moon have its atmosphere? Yes, the moon has a very thin atmosphere called the exosphere.
  • Temperatures can get as burning hot as 127 degrees celsius and as cold as -153 degrees celsius.

Clear night sky

If we look high up into a clear night sky usually we can see the moon shining back at us. The moon is like a natural giant night light to our night skies. Believe it or not many nocturnal animals rely on the moon light to see at night. Our Earth only has one moon but many planets in our solar system have more than one. Our Moon has a rocky surface that almost resembles the deserts here on Earth. The moon also has craters created by space rocks hitting the moon at high speed. The temperature can sometimes be extremely hot or extremely cold. The Moon can reach temperatures as high as 127 degrees celsius and a low of -153 degrees celsius. Just like Earth the Moon has its own gravity force. (This is the force that pulls us on the ground without gravity we will all be floating off the Earth.) The Moons gravity is much weaker that Earths.

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Tiny Champions Moon

Moons Orbit

The Moon travels around the Earth in an oval-shaped orbit. It takes the moon around 27 days to complete an orbit around the earth.

The Moons Phases

Have you ever looked up into the night sky and noticed that the moon changes shape day by day throughout the month? This happens as the Moon orbits the Earth the Moon shifts in angle within the light from the Sun’s ray. The Moon lights up our night sky by the light reflecting from the sun. The part of the Moon we see in the night sky is the part of the Moon the sunlight hits during the Moons monthly orbit around the Earth. The image below shows the 8 phases of the moon as it orbits Earth.

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As our Moon orbits the Earth it rotates on its axis just like planet Earth. The Moon rotates at almost the same rate it does to complete an orbit around Earth. This is the reason why we only see 60% of the Moons surface from Earth. The side closest to Earth is called the near side and the other side of the Moon is called the far side.

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