The Moon

By Rebecca
 The Moon is orbiting at about 2,300 miles per hour.
The Moon is slowly drifting away
The Moon looks the same size as the Sun
The Moon makes 1 rotation and completes a revolution
around the Earth every 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes.
The Moon is the 5th largest natural satellite in the Solar
System
The moon, the Earth's only natural satellite, is about
238,900 miles away from Earth. It is the brightest light in
the night sky, yet it does not give off its own light, but
reflects the sunlight.
Only 59% of the moon's surface is visible from earth. From
Earth, we always see the same side of the moon; the
other side is always hidden.
The dark spots we see on the moon that create the
image of the man in the moon are actually craters filled
with basalt.
 The shape of the moon appears to change in a repeating
cycle when viewed from the Earth because the amount
of illuminated moon we see varies, depending on the
moon's position in relation to the Earth and the sun.
We see the full moon when the sun is directly behind us,
illuminating a full hemisphere of the moon when it is
directly in front of us.
The new moon, when the moon is darkened, occurs when
the moon is almost directly between Earth and the sun.
When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is
called a blue moon. Another definition of a blue moon is
the third full moon in any season containing 4 total full
moons.
 At some point in Earth's early history, a rogue planet,
larger than Mars, struck the Earth in a great, glancing
blow. Instantly, most of the rogue body and a sizable
chunk of Earth were vaporized. The cloud rose to above
13,700 miles altitude, where it condensed into
innumerable solid particles that orbited the Earth as they
aggregated into ever larger moonlets, which eventually
combined to form the moon.
The surface of the moon has many things on it such as
craters, lava plains, mountains, and valleys. Scientists
believe the craters were formed around 3.5 to 4.5 billion
years ago by meteors hitting the moon's surface. They can
be from 1 meter to 1,000 kilometer.
The Moon's temperature ranges between 123C (253F) to
233C (-451F). It's really hot where the sun is shining and
really cold where it's not.
 Because the force of gravity at the surface of an object is
the result of the object's mass and size, the surface gravity
of the moon is only one-sixth that of the Earth. The force
gravity exerts on a person determines the person's weight.
A man that weighs 180 pounds on Earth would weigh only
30 pounds on the Moon. The moon's gravitational pull on
the Earth is the main cause of the rise and fall of ocean
tides. The moon's gravitational pull causes two bulges of
water on the Earth's oceansone where ocean waters
face the moon and the pull is strongest and one where
ocean waters face away from the moon and the pull is
weakest. Both bulges cause high tides. These are high
tides. As the Earth rotates, the bulges move around it, one
always facing the moon, the other directly opposite. The
combined forces of gravity, the Earth's rotation, and other
factors usually cause two high tides and two low tides
each day.
 The moon is the only extraterrestrial body that has ever
been visited by humans. Only 12 people have ever
stepped onto the surface of the Moon. The first space
craft to send back pictures from the moon was Luna 3
(built by the Soviet Union) in October 1959.
There is no wind or weather on the moon. The footprints
left there by the Apollo astronauts will remain there for
many years because of this.
The rocks and soil brought back by Apollo missions are
extremely dry; the moon has no indigenous water.
However, the moon is bombarded by water-laden
comets and meteoroids. Most of this water is lost to space,
but some is trapped in permanently shadowed areas near
both poles of the moon.
Apollo's studies suggested that the moon has only a tiny
metallic core, roughly 15 times smaller than that of the
Earth. They also believe that the core is not in the middle,
like Earth's.
 Bibliography
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_facts.pht
ml
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07
/0714_040714_moonfacts.html
http://www.universetoday.com/20050/10-
interesting-facts-about-the-moon/
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112410/quickfacts.ht
m
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/cannelton/moontree/mo
on.htm