Jakarta –
The moon is one of the celestial bodies that can be found at night when the sky turns dark. Together with the sparkling stars, the moon’s light illuminates and decorates the dark gray night sky.
For thousands of years, the Moon has guided human activities. Starting from guidelines for shipping activities to calendar days. The light is also what makes some people amazed to see it.
Entering the modern century, humans began to explore more deeply about the existence of the Moon through the scientific field. For example, the first human landing mission on the Moon was carried out in 1969. And until now, humans continue to dig up information about this celestial body.
After numerous efforts, scientists uncovered a number of interesting and surprising facts about the Moon. So, what are the findings about the Moon? Find out the information in the description below.
Surprising Facts About the Moon
Following are a number of surprising facts about the Moon that detikEdu has summarized from various sources:
1. The Moon Formed from an Explosive Collision
Reported by the National Geographic website, the Moon is believed to have formed in an explosion between the proto-Earth (an early stage of the Earth that was larger than it is now) colliding with an object the size of the planet Mars. From the collision, debris was thrown into space and coalesced to form the Moon.
This event is thought to have occurred around 4.5 billion years ago. And the collision that occurred was estimated to be 100 million times greater than the event that destroyed the dinosaur habitat.
2. It is a natural satellite of the Earth
Quoted from the NASA page, the Moon is the only Earth’s satellite that exists naturally. This space object circles the Earth at a distance of around 385,000 km or the equivalent of 30 Earth diameters.
3. Smaller than Earth
The moon is about a quarter the diameter of the Earth. The approximate diameter of the Moon is around 3,475 km. If you look at its surface area, the Moon covers about 1/16 of the total surface area of the Earth. Regarding mass, the moon has 1.2% the mass of the Earth.
4. The Moon Looks Bigger Before
In the early days of the Moon’s formation, this space object looked 10 times larger than it does now when seen from Earth. This is because the Moon is 10 times closer to Earth.
Even computer simulations show that the Moon was likely 12-19 times closer to Earth initially, with the Moon orbiting at a distance of 20,000-30,000 km.
5. Lunar Surface
The moon is covered in extinct volcanoes, craters, and lava flows. Scientists initially thought that the dark parts of the Moon were oceans. However, it is not a sea of water, but a pool of hardened lava.
The lunar crust consists of a rocky surface covered with regolith. The thickness of the crust is around 60-100 km. The regolith at the surface can be as deep as 3 meters in the lava ocean, or as deep as 20 meters in the highlands.
The average composition of the Moon’s surface by mass is approximately 43% oxygen, 20% silicon, 19% magnesium, 10% iron, 3% calcium, 3% aluminum, 0.42% chromium, 0.18% titanium, and 0. 12% manganese.
6. Layers Below the Moon’s Surface
Like Earth, the Moon also has a crust, mantle and core. The part of the crust that covers the surface of the Moon is on average about 70 km deep. The moon’s rocky mantle is around 1,330 km thick. It is composed of solid rock rich in iron and magnesium.
The moon has a very small core, only 1%-2% of the moon’s mass and is approximately 680 km wide. It is likely composed mostly of iron, but also contains large amounts of sulfur and other elements.
7. Moon Temperature
Temperatures on the Moon vary greatly. During the day, the Moon has a peak temperature of between 127 and 134 degrees C. At night, the temperature is very high, around -153 to -173 degrees C. In some of its craters, the temperature is close to -240 degrees C.
The average surface temperature is 107 degrees C during the day and -53 degrees C at night.
8. Moondust Smells of Gunpowder
The surface of the Moon is covered with a layer of dust. This dust even stuck to the astronauts’ clothes when they explored the Moon. An astronaut, Harrison Jack Schmitt, said that Moon dust smells like gunpowder.
This dust is what caused a number of astronauts to experience a kind of Moon fever with symptoms of sneezing and stuffy noses that took several days to disappear.
9. Discovery of Moon Water
India’s Moon exploration mission discovered water near the Moon’s poles, and NASA discovered water beneath the Moon’s surface. Not much water was found, but it is estimated that one cubic meter of lunar soil can produce one liter of water.
10. The Moon Causes the Tides of the Sea
The tides on Earth are said to be the result of water bulges caused by the Moon’s gravitational force. Actually, tides are also influenced by the sun’s gravity. However, the tides will be smaller without the moon.
11. Custom Naming Craters of the Moon
There is a special custom that is applied in naming craters on the Moon, namely that the names are taken from the names of scholars, scientists, artists or explorers. For example, there is a lunar crater called Copernicus which is taken from the name of a Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus. There is also the Archimedes crater which was taken from a Greek mathematician in the third century BC, namely Archimedes.
The custom of applying these names to the formations of the Moon began in 1645 with Michael van Langren, an engineer in Brussels who named the main features of the moon after kings and great people on Earth
12. The Moon Has Many Visitors
The moon is the only celestial body outside Earth that humans have visited so far. Starting in the late 1950s, it was a place in space that humans wanted to reach.
More than 105 robotic spacecraft from several countries have been launched to explore the Moon. Nine manned missions have flown to the Moon and back.
It is estimated that 24 humans have traveled from Earth to the Moon, with 12 of them having set foot there. The last human to visit the surface of the Moon was in 1972.
Those are 12 interesting facts about the Moon. Did detikers know beforehand?
Watch the video “Take a peek at Luna-25, the Russian space vehicle that will land on the moon”
(fds/fds)
2023-09-18 22:15:10
#Interesting #Facts #Moon
