Astronomy essay The Moon Earth's satellite.

Photo: Lupu Victor
Date:29.10.2010

A moon, is any celestial body that revolves around a planet and not vice versa. Many planets in our Solar System have moons. These are Mars (2) Jupiter (64) Saturn (62), Uranus (27), Neptune (13) Pluto (5).

Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It also is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System, relative to the size of its planet, with 27% diameter and 60% of Eart's density, resulting in 1 / 81 of its mass.

How the Moon formed?
The Moon, is a huge body that rotates around the Earth at a speed of 3680 kmph unlike the Earth, which has a speed of 108.000 kmph around the Sun. So we talk about another celestial body, a world completely different from ours. This gray sphere (which under certain lighting conditions has colors, strange, right?), has an area of ​​37,900,000 km squares. How was made​​, how it got here? Just speculations. But there is a great similarity between the surface of Mercury and the Moon. Inside, the two bodies have however a different story, but both shows similar craters.

 But currently, the most plausible theory is that a great collision occurred about 4.5 billion years ago between Earth and a Mars-sized planet that had a path through our planet and destroyed our young Earth.The collision then formed a ring around Earth's orbit, which eventually condensed into a molten Moon.

There are four major scientific theories attempting to explain the origin of the Moon:

1. Fission. The Moon is a piece of land separated from fast moving.

2. Co-creation theory known as "sister planet". Moon formed from a cloud of debris in orbit around the Earth embryo.

3. Capture. Moon originally formed as an independent planet, but was captured by Earth's gravity.

4. Collision (also known as the theory of "big impact"). Moon formed from material thrown from the earth after a planetary collision with it.


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Geology of the Moon.
The Moon is quite tempting for amateur astronomers because it is nothing but earth, but also because it's a little shy because it shows only a part of its surface, so it is carefully studied by telescope, being the most accessible for observation. In synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face us, it's face is marked by seas (maria) of dark volcanic origin, which fill areas between mountains and the prominent impact craters.

Lunar topography was measured by laser altimetry and stereo image analysis.The most visible topographic characteristic, is the giant basin Aitken, 2240 km in diameter, located on the far side of the Moon, near the South Pole, the largest crater and the largest known in all Solar System.

Topographical characteristics of the moon, are:

Craters
Mountains
Seas (mare)
Lakes

Moon's environment.If you were on the Moon, you would see a hostile environment. Temperatures oscillate from one extreme to another, from a minimum of -153 ° C at the maximum of 107 ° C.

The sky is always black and the Moon, even with the sun in the sky, because there is no atmosphere to give the color of the sky. Sun is fiery without adequate protective clothing. Radiation is coming from the Sun without any barrier and high temperature would fry like in a microwave anyone.

A step on the lunar soil can rise dust much higher than on Earth, because there is a vacuum. In our atmosphere the dirt is heavier, so it falls to the ground faster.

The only alternative for man to live on this massive bolid, is to build hermetic buildings in which to create an environment for life.

Moon is like a hollow apple, a lifeless body, which have both extreme temperatures.
Soil shows craters of all sizes. If you were on the Moon, you've hit a hostile environment. Moon's ground is soft most of it.

A very important thing I would notice on the Moon, are the clear stars. With no atmosphere, the Moon would provide a great night viewing. Through a telescope, all observations would be with no chromatic aberration or a blurry image from air pollution as they do on Earth.


Moon colonization.
Frankly, I would be very happy to be one of the first inhabitants of the Moon, and if such a base would be built there, I'd do it, but only if I get along with people which are carefully psychological analyzed, not risking conflicts during that period. Imagine of not geting along with someone you live in a space of 400 square meters, say over a period of 5 years.


I can imagine how nice it would show the Earth from the Moon. It would be much bigger than the Moon viwed from the Earth. To this marvel, we add the overwhelming beauty of our planet, bright and blue, full of white clouds as snow with spectacular swirls.

I would look through the telescope on my own planet, remembering how I looked from the Earth, to the Moon.
Besides the admiration that I have for the mother planet, I would do more tests when I get dressed in the lunar environment protection costume. First I would play with moon sand, I'd made ​​some dangerous maneuvers like jumping, somersaults, and I would be looking for any changes of the surface, eg, gas that is supposed to emanate, flashes or lightning were recorded in observations of amateur astronomers, and maybe I'd find other unexplained phenomena that we could not see it, unless it was a research base there.

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Apogee / Perigee.
Our natural satellite has periods when it is closer and farther than usual from the planet.
The average distance between Earth and the Moon, is 384.400 km. When the Moon is closer to us, at perigee, it is at an average distance of 362.570 kilometers, and when it is further from us, at its apogee, is 405.410 km from us.

Importance of the Moon for us.
The Moon has the shape, size, distance from the earth but also other features, that makes it perfect for life on Earth. If our Moon did not exist where it is, most would have suffered would be the oceans, which would not be attracted by its gravity towards the equator, and therefore water were redistributed to the poles. Another effect, would be affected the axis and Earth's rotation to stay on the same direction as the Moon is a stabilizing factor of our planet. In addition, it can be modified the distances of the Earth with the Sun, when reaches aphelion and perihelion.


A Moon without a name?
The Moon is called Selena and the Earth is named Gaia, but these names are not recognized by astronomers, science. In fact, all the heavenly bodies seen in this Universe, has names. Planets have names (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc..), and natural satellites (moons) of neighboring planets have also names (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Phobos etc. ..)


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