The Moon

In class Friday, Mr. Tim talked about the moon, the phases of the moon, and how the moon causes tides. We took the Astronomy Quiz, that we studied for on Thursday.

1.) What We Learned About The Moon:

We learned the amount of time for the moon to rotate on its axis and for the moon to revolve around the earth is 28 (27.3) days. It didn't always take this amount of time to do so, but after millions of years the dates became the same, 27.3 days.

The "Dark Side" of the moon: Isn't actually dark, but hidden from the earth for most of the time. That 18% of the moon is on the far side of the moon and the sun doesn't normally shine on it, so it appears dark. On some occasions like on Full Moons or New moons that part of the moon is visible and the sun illuminates it.

The moon that revolves around our planet is our only natural satellite and is visible to us because of the Sun reflecting onto the Moon.

The moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the second lightest thing visible. It is made visible because the sun shines its light onto the moon, as shown below.

The Eagle touched the moon and first took samples on July 1969.

The 4 theories on how the moon formed:

1. The fission theory that states the Moon was once a part of the earth, but long ago it split off the spinning Earth.

2. Another theory, the "capture" theory, that means we assume the Moon existed before, and was pulled in by the Earth's gravity.

3. The third theory is that space material, cloud, and dust, was pulled in by the gravity until it gathered to create the lump that formed the Moon.

4. The last theory and most popularly thought of as correct is that a large object would hit/collide with the Earth, so a part of it would break off, and because of it creating the Moon.

Number of Moons on each planet:

Jupiter has 9 moons.

Earth has 1 moon.

Venus and Mercury both have none.

Mars has 2.

Saturn has 61.

Uranus has 27 that we know of.

Neptune has 13 moons.

Comparing Moon and Earth:

Volume of the the moon = 2% of the volume of Earth

Radius of the moon = 1/4 radius of Earth

Gravity of the moon = 17% of the gravity on Earth

Earth's Atmosphere:

Atmosphere was created by the gases that surround our Earth, in the first million years or so.

Earth and Venus both have atmospheres, but Venus's is over heated because it has too much CO2.

2.) Phases of Moon:

- it takes 29.5 days between each full moon

-the dark spots on the moon are the seas

-the light spots are mountains

-moon has no liquid water, except for freezing ice in deep crater shadows

These are the phases of the moon.

Mr. Tim also mentioned a catchy song that spoke about the moon's phases and helps explain what each phase of moon looks like...

The link to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQRNzepe4wI

3.) How the moon causes tides:

The moon's gravity effects the pull on the tides. So twice a day the tides "bulge" more.

http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/tides/-Here is BrainPop video that helps explain how the moon effects the tides.

Other websites you can look at for more information about the moon:

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vUObZwLJ8A&NR=1 - video on phases

-http://www.samuelwat.com/peabody/tides.html -tides

-http://www.samuelwat.com/peabody/moon/index.html - animation and facts about the Moon's phases

Next scribe will be Aidan