The Moon of Earth is a definitely a special moon. It is layered with thick layers of dust. The Apollo astronauts found it difficult to operate on this sticky dust surface. The dust was created by micro-meteorites colliding to the surface. The dust particles are just constantly grinding each other up for 4 billion years now.

The Apollo astronauts helped prove a theory, that Charles Darwin’s son hypothesized in 1878, that the moon is moving away from the Earth. The astronauts put a mirror on the moon, and astranomers shined a laser at it and measured the length of the laser. They found out that indeed the moon is moving away by about 3.5 cm per year.

The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 234,000 miles. It is locked in a phase lock with the gravity from earth, which means from earth we only see side of the moon. With the moon being 1/4 the size of the Earth it being in a phase lock changes the day to day ratio of moon to Earth. If you’re on the moon for one day,  27 earth days will have passed.

If you look up to the moon you’ll notice a face on it or, the man on the moon. It looks like theres a face on the moon. That was created by astroids railing into the moon creating craters that are 700 miles across. The larger craters were filled with lava which mad it darker than the rest of the moon. This big dips in the moon are called maria, which in latin translates to seas.

The moon exists in the vacuum of space, due to having no atmosphere. So the sky is always dark, because there no molecules to spread the sun’s light. Heat doesn’t stay as consistent in the darkness of space. As the moons temperatures can vary from 240 degrees F, and get to -240 F.

With the moon being one of the bigger moons we know about relative to the object it is orbiting it creates changes on the Earth. It has a gravitational effect on Earth, it changes the tides of our ocean. Tides are pulled back and forward, the tide goes towards the moon, so in result the opposite side of the ocean drys up. If you really think about this it is a crazy thing. With the mass of the ocean being as big as it is, that the moon can change position of the entire body. In some instances the difference is 55 feet.

The moon keeps the Earth in check. It is keeping the Earth tilt where it is supposed to be, which allows us to have our normal season. If we had a smaller moon this would not be a thing.

Have you ever looked up and thought the moon and sun looked the same size. I have but I never really looked into it. Well it turns out it is one of the craziest coincidence I have ever heard. So the reason they appear the same size is because the sun is 400 times the Moon’s diameter, and it is also 400 times apart from each other, which makes it a perfect fit for solar eclipses.

I have such a new outlook on the moon. Now noticing facts that I overlooked as a kid really turns out to be so interesting. And that really could be a lesson to not overlook little things, and look into things we take advantage of, and many to

#StayCurious