Great Links!

Here is a list of other great websites that have valid and interesting information on me, please take a look!
Thanks for listening.
See you tonight. :)

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/moons_and_rings.html

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html

Exploration!

The first leap in your observation of me, was prompted by the invention of the telescope. Galileo Galilei made good use of this new instrument and observed mountains and craters on my surface!

The first leap in lunar observation was prompted by the invention of the telescope. Galileo Galilei made good use of this new instrument and observed mountains and craters on my surface.
The Cold War-inspired space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. led to an acceleration of interest in me. Unmanned probes, both flyby and impact/lander missions, were sent almost as soon as launcher capabilities would allow it. The Soviet Union's Luna program was the first to reach me with an unmanned spacecraft.

The first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near me was Luna 1.

The first man-made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 1.

The first photographs of the normally occluded far side of me were made by Luna 3, all in 1959.

The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966.

The landing of the first humans on me in 1969 is seen by many as the culmination of the space race. It was so exciting!

Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on my surface. He was the commander of the American mission Apollo 11 and first set foot on me at 02:56 UTC on July 21, 1969.

The American Moon landing and return was enabled by considerable technological advances, in domains such as ablation chemistry and atmospheric re-entry technology, in the early 1960s.

Lunar Exploration Timeline-

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunartimeline.html

Eclipses

Lunar eclipses are special events that only occur when certain conditions are met. First of all, Imust be in "full phase". Secondly, I have to be perfectly in a straight line with the Sun and the Earth. If both of these are met, then the Earth's shadow can block the Sun's light from hitting me.

There are three types of my eclipses. Which one we will see depends on the alignment of the three celestial objects. But first, you need to know that the Earth's shadow is broken up into two parts. The umbra is the darker part of the shadow, where no part of the Sun can been seen. The penumbra is lighter than the umbra, because part of the Sun can be seen.
So, when part of mepasses through the umbra, this is called a partial eclipse. When all of me passes through the umbra, this is called a total eclipse. Finally, when I only passes through the penumbra, this is called a penumbral eclipse.

Now that you know all about eclipses, you can step outside and enjoy the show! It is my time to shine! Well, maybe not so much 'shine'... but there are always s many of you looking up at me and it makes me feel special!

Remember that my eclipses are not dangerous to the human eye, so you don't need protection to watch. Just find a nice, cozy spot and enjoy!

Lunar Eclipses: 2000 through 2020-

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/moon/lunar_eclipse_stats.html

I control your Ocean Tides!

Did you know?...

The ocean tides on your planet, Earth, are initiated by the tidal force (a gradiant in intensity) of my gravity and are magnified by a host of effects in Earth's oceans. The gravitational tidal force arises because the side of Earth facing me is attracted more strongly by my gravity than is the center of the Earth and—even less so—the Earth's far side. The gravitational tide stretches the Earth's oceans into an ellipse with the Earth in the center. The effect takes the form of two bulges—elevated sea level relative to the Earth; one nearest me and one farthest from me. Since these two bulges rotate around the Earth once a day as it spins on its axis, ocean water is continuously rushing towards the ever-moving bulges. The effects of the two bulges and the massive ocean currents chasing them are magnified by an interplay of other effects; namely frictional coupling of water to Earth's rotation through the ocean floors, inertia of water's movement, ocean basins that get shallower near land, and oscillations between different ocean basins. The magnifying effect is a bit like water sloshing high up the sloped end of a bathtub after a relatively small disturbance of one's body in the deep part of the tub.

Neat eh?

Keep it Simple!

An image of the moon taken by Apollo 10 astronauts. Image courtesy of NASA.

For those of you that are having a little trouble following all of the big words and how complicated I might be, this post is for you!!

The Earth's one natural satellite, ME, is more than one quarter the size of Earth itself (3,474 km diameter). Because of its smaller size, my gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's gravity!

While there are only two basic types of regions on my surface, there are many interesting surface features such as craters, mountain ranges, and lava plains.

The structure of my interior is more difficult to study. The Moon's top layer is a rocky solid, perhaps 800 km thick. Beneath this layer is a partially molten zone. Although it is not know for sure I may have a small iron core, even though I have no magnetic field.

By studying my surface and interior, geologists can learn about my history an formation.

The footprints left by Apollo astronauts will last for centuries because there is no wind on me!

The Moon does not possess any atmosphere, so there is no weather as we are used to on Earth. Because there is no atmosphere to trap heat, the temperatures here are extreme, ranging from 100° C at noon to -173° C at night!!

I do not produce its own light, but I look bright because I reflect light from the Sun. Think of the beautiful Sun as a light bulb, and me as a mirror, reflecting light from the light bulb. My 'lunar' phase changes as I orbit the Earth and different portions of its surface are illuminated by the Sun.

Hope this helps!

My Origin...?

Several mechanisms have been suggested for my formation, and where I came from but nobody knows for certain, not even me.

My formation is believe to have occurred 4.527 ± 0.010 billion years ago, about 30–50 million years after the origin of the Solar System

Fission hypothesis
Early speculation proposed that I broke off from the Earth's crust because of centrifugal forces, leaving a basin – presumed to be the Pacific Ocean – behind as a scar. This idea, however, would require too great an initial spin of the Earth; and, even had this been possible, the process should have resulted in my orbit following Earth's equatorial plane. This is not the case.

Capture hypothesis
Other speculation has centered me being formed elsewhere and subsequently being captured by Earth's gravity. However, the conditions believed necessary for such a mechanism to work, such as an extended atmosphere of the Earth in order to dissipate my energy, are improbable.

Co-formation hypothesis
The co-formation hypothesis proposes that the Earth and meformed together at the same time and place from the primordial accretion disk. I would have formed from material surrounding the proto-Earth, similar to the formation of the planets around the Sun. Some suggest that this hypothesis fails adequately to explain the depletion of metallic iron in me.
A major deficiency in all these hypotheses is that they cannot readily account for the high angular momentum of the 'Earth–Moon' system.

Giant Impact hypothesis
The prevailing hypothesis today is that the my system with the Earth formed as a result of a giant impact. A Mars-sized body (labelled "Theia") is believed to have hit the proto-Earth, blasting sufficient material into orbit around the proto-Earth to form me through accretion. As accretion is the process by which all planetary bodies are believed to have formed, giant impacts are thought to have affected most if not all planets. Computer simulations modelling a giant impact are consistent with measurements of the angular momentum of the 'Earth–Moon' system, as well as the small size of the lunar core.Unresolved questions regarding this theory concern the determination of the relative sizes of the proto-Earth and Theia and of how much material from these two bodies formed me!

Magnetic Field

Sooo to continue to ramble on more about myself, I thought you should know about my magnetic field!

I have an external magnetic field, it is very weak in comparison to that of the Earth. Other major differences are that the I do not currently have a diploar magnetic field (as would be generated by a geodynamo in its core) and the varying magnetization that is present is almost entirely crustal in origin.

Roughly once every Lunar orbit, I pass through Earth's magnetotail for approximately 6 days. Interaction with the plasma sheet cause my surface to become negatively charged. On my dayside this effect is counteracted to a degree by sunlight: ultraviolet photons knock electrons back off the surface, keeping the build-up of charge at relatively low levels. But on the nightside electrons accumulate and surface voltages can climb to hundreds or thousands of volts. There's growing evidence that fine particles of moondust might actually float, ejected from the lunar surface by electrostatic repulsion. This could create a temporary nighttime "atmosphere" of dust. The moondust atmosphere might also gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside. This "dust storm" effect would be strongest at the Moon's terminator.

Although this may look to be confusion upon first glance, I found this really coold website from NASA that explains about my magnetic field quite a bit better with visuals:

Please visit this website, as I want you to be sure you understand about my magnetic field!-

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/magnetotail_080416.html

it's Gravity, Man!

My gravitational field has been determined through tracking of radio signals emited by orbiting spacecraft. This depends on the 'Doppler effect', whereby the spacecraft acceleration in the line-of-sight direction can be detemined by means of small shifts in frequency of the radio signal, and the distance from the spacecraft to the station on your planet, Earth.

However, because of my synchronous rotation, that I mentioned earlier, it is not possible for you to track my 'farside' gravitational field. My 'farside' is thus only poorly characterised.

The major characteristic of my gravitational field that you should know about is the presence of mascons, which are large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins. There anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon, and an accurate graviational model is necessary in the planning of both manned and unmanned missions.

Therefore you need to really learn about the difference in my gravitational field, in compairsion to the earth in order to come visit me!!

Do you want to find out how much you would weigh on the moon?

Visit this site to find out!-http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_gravity.phtml

The law of gravity is like a magnet which pulls any matter or attracts any matter. Basically the force of gravity is the attraction between each piece of matter, even the smallest of particles.The Sun's force of gravity holds the planet in its orbit, the Earth's gravity keeps the moon in its orbit.The moon being a small object as compared to earth have weaker gravity. This explains why astronauts on the moon can jump high with very little effort.

What am I made of?

Cheese?
Nope... sorry!

I am a 'differentiated body' composed of a distinct crust, mantle and core! My structure is believe to have resulted from the fraction crystallization of magma ocean shortly after my formation around 4.4 billion years ago!

My crust, in terms of elements is composed primarily of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum and is estimated to be about 50 km thick.

I have the density of 3346.4 kg/m cubed, making me the second densest moon in the Solar system, after my dear 'moon' friend Io.

My core is small, with a radius of only about 350km or less. This is therefore only 20% of me! As you can see, I am very different from other terrestrial bodies as their composition of core is around 50% of their make up.

Analysis of my time-variable rotation indicate that my core is at least partly molten.

IMPACT CRATERS!

They say that my surface is marked by impact craters! It sure is! These impact craters form when asteroids and comets collide into me! Ouch*
There are about half a million craters on me with diameters greater than 1 km!

Since impact craters accumulate at a nearly constant rate, the number of craters per unit area superposed on a geologic unit can be used to estimate my age. Because there isn't much of an atmosphere around me, or weather... recent geological processes ensure that many of the craters on me have remained relatively well preserved in comparison to those on Earth.

My largest crater, which is known to be the largest crater in the Solar System, is called the 'South Pole-Aitken basin'. It is on my far side between the South Pole and equator and is 2,240 km in diameter and 13 km in depth!!

Terrae

My North Pole...

My South Pole...

The lighter-colored regions of my surface are called Terrae, or more commonly just highlands,since they are higher then most of the mare of my surface. Several prominent mountain ranges on the near side are found along the periphery of the giant impact basins, many of which have been filled by mare basalt. These are believed to be the surviving remnants of the impact basin's outer rims In contrast to the Earth, no major lunar mountains are believed to have formed as a result of tectonic events.

From images of my terrae taken by the Clementine mission in 1994, it appears that four mountainous regions on the rim of the 73 km-wide Peary crater at my north pole remain illuminated for the entire lunar day. These peaks of eternal light are possible because of the Moon's extremely small axial tilt to the ecliptic plane. No similar regions of eternal light were found at my south pole, although the rim of Shackleton crater illuminated for about 80% of the lunar day. Another consequence of my small axial tilt is regions that remain in permanent shadow to you on earth, at the bottoms of my polar craters.

Maria, Maria....

Let me tell you about Maria...
she definitely doesn't give me the shine that the Sun does, but she is an important feature of myself that you must know about!

The dark and relatively featureless lunar plans which can clearly be seen with your naked eye are called maria (singular mare), Latin for seas, since they were believe by ancient astronomers to be filled with water! pfft...

These are now know to be vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava. The majority of these lavas erupted of flowed with impact basics that formed by the collisions of meteors and comets with the lunar surface, Maria are found almost exclusively on the near side me, with the far side having only a few scattered patches covering about 2% of my surface, compared with about 31% on my near side.
The most likely explanation for this difference is related to a higher concentration of heat-producing elements on the near-side hemisphere, as has been demonstrated by geochemical maps obtained from the Lunar Prospector gamma-ray spectrometer, such a long name!
Several provinces containing shield volcanoes and volcanic domes are found within the near side maria.


This song was NOT created after the maria on my surface....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ml3NUIDpFg

Two Side of Me

Okay,
So... I am in 'synchronous rotation', which means that I rotate about my axis in the about same time it takes to orbit the Earth. This results in keeping nearly the same face turned towards you on Earth at all times!
I used to rotate at a faster rate, but early in history, my rotation slowed and became locked in this orientation as a result of frictional effects associated with tidal deformations caused by the Earth.

Small variations in the angle of which you can see me on Earth allow for you to see about 59% of my surface, but only half at any instant.
It was the Russians who were the first to take photographs of my 'far side' through the Soviet Space Program, Luna 3 in 1958.

Link:
"The Unseen Side of the Moon":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmovPeu3GM

The side of me that faces the Earth is called the "near side", and the opposite side, is called the "far side". The far side of me is often inaccurately called the "dark side" just like Pink Floyds' 1973 concept album "The Dark Side of the Moon"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d78K4rCEfAo&feature=related, but in fact it is illuminated exactly as often as the near side: once, per lunar day.

A distinguishing feature of my "far side" is that its almost complete lack of maria.

Welcome

To start off, I thought I should introduce myself. Although many of you have seen me every night you might not know that much about me...
So let me begin,

I am The Moon (Latin: Luna).

I am the Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. I live about 384,403 km away from you, on Earth! I make a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days, this is called my "orbital period". The periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon– and the Sun system are responsible for the 'lunar phases' that repeat every 29.5 days.

I am much smaller then your planet, Earth. I am about a quarter of the Earth's diameter which is 3,474 kms. Therefore my surface area is less then 1/10th of the Earth!
I am the only celestial body to which humans, like you have traveled and upon which humans have performed a manned landing. The first artificial object to pass near me was the 'Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first artificial object to impact my surface was Luna 2 and the first photographs of the "far side of me" ("the far side of the Moon") were made by Luna 3 all in 1959!

The first space craft to perform a successful landing on my was Luna 9, and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966!
The Unite States Apollo program achieved the only manned mission to date, resulting in six landings and visit to me between 1969 and 1972
Human explorate of me ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to visit me since then. I liked it more when humans visited me!
I have heard talk that several countries have announced plans to return humans to the surface of the Moon in the 2020's. I can't wait!