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.
