The Earth's Moon

The Earth's moon is an interesting object to study, its beautiful face when is full in the sky provokes that many people love it. As the Earth, the moon rotate on its axis, and it takes it 27.3 days, and that same time to orbit the Earth. We see the moon because of reflected sunlight, but we see always the same face of the moon. 

 

The Earth's Moon

Formation

In the universe, many planets have moons, in this case, Some scientist said that the Earth's moon had been formed because of a beat that something had given to the Earth, and it had torn a piece of the Earth away.

Regarding on its atmosphere, it is very thin, so a footprint there can keep intact for centuries, and also because of this, heat is not held near of the moon, so there is a variety of temperatures. On the sunny side of the moon the temperature can reach 133° Celsius and on the dark side it gets as cold as -152° Celsius.

Tidal Effects

The moon is the natural satellite of Earth, which provokes some interesting effects. For example, the gravity of the moon pulls at the Earth, causing tides, that’s to say, causing rises and falls in sea levels. Tides occur also in the atmosphere and lakes, but to a much smaller extend.The rotation of the Earth also is affect by the gravity’s moon, because it is slowing the Earth’s rotation, and this effect makes that the day’s length increases by 2.3 milliseconds per century.

The moon’s gravity was a key to making Earth a livable planet by moderating the degree of wobble in Earth’s axial tilt, which led that Earth had a stable climate over billions of years. So, the experts said that the moon’s gravity was an important factor to people could live in the Earth.

The moon's endless dance

Lunar eclipse

 

 Eclipses

When Earth, the moon and the sun are in a straight line or nearly, an eclipse occurs. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth gets directly or almost between the sun and the moon, so the Earth’s shadow falls on the moon, but it only occurs during a full moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets directly or almost between Earth and the sun, so the moon’s shadow falls on Earth, but it only occurs during a new moon.

Seasons

Seasons depend on the tilt of the planet’s axis, the tilt of the Earth’s axis is 23.5 degrees, but the tilt of the moon’s axis is 1.5 degrees, so that means that moon virtually doesn’t have seasons. So, because of this, some areas of the moon always are lit by sunlight, but the other areas are always covered in shadow.

Discussion Questions

1- Do you know another theory about how did the Earth's moon form?

2- What other effects do you think the gravity of the moon has on the Earth?

3- Which is your favorite type of eclipse, the solar eclipse or the lunar eclipse?

Bibliography

Charles Q. Choi (2013, June 21). Earth's Moon: Formation, Composition and Orbit. Space. Retrieved from http://www.space.com/55-earths-moon-formation-composition-and-orbit.html