From Earth the Moon looks a little different to us every night. Sometimes glowing brightly with the entire face showing, at other times a mere sliver showing, or not visible at all. These changes in the Moon’s appearance are called phases. At some stages as the Moon orbits the Earth we see more of the […]
The surface of the Moon is rocky and covered with craters. Mountains and hills surround the edges of large, flat plains. The lunar mountain ranges, with heights up to 25,000 ft (7,800 m), are comparable to the highest mountains on earth but in general are not very steep. Topographic Map of […]
Temperatures on the moon range from extremely hot, up to 123C (253F) when the sunlight hits the moon’s surface, to a freezing cold minus 153C (-243F) on the dark side. As there is no significant atmosphere on the Moon it cannot trap heat or insulate the surface LRO Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment surface temperature map […]
The Moon moves in a counterclockwise direction with an average orbital speed of about 0.6 miles/sec or 2,160 m.p.h. Because the lunar orbit is elliptical, the distance between the Earth and the Moon varies between about 227,000 miles (365,000 km) at perigee, and about 254,000 miles (409,000 km) at apogee, when the Moon is farthest […]
There is no air on the Moon, but it has recently been announced that water is definitely present. In 2013 NASA funded Lunar research found evidence of water locked in mineral grains, deep beneath the surface. Using data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists remotely […]
On July 20th, 1969 at 20.18 UTC, Neil Armstrong was the first man to take a step onto the surface of the Moon, followed by fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The third member of the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit, until the other two returned just under a […]
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There are dark areas on the Moon. These are really dry land but long ago astronomers thought they were filled with water, so they called them seas Crater 308 Image: NASA
Moonquakes are a regular occurrence on the Moon. Apollo astronauts left behind a seismometer to measure Lunar seismic activity
