When we see other phases, we are looking at the division between lunar night the dark part and day the bright part. The Moon is shaped like an imperfect sphere. From a distance, it looks nearly round.
The Moon is up just as much during the day as it is at night, but you might not notice it as easily. Moonrises and moonsets occur for the same reason as sunrises and sunsets. Earth rotates every day! This means that observers in many different parts of the world have their turn looking at the Moon throughout the day, just like we all see the same Sun over the course of 24 hours. This is an optical illusion. Prove it for yourself here! The Moon does not make its own light.
All moonlight is reflected sunlight. The bright part of the Moon is experiencing daytime. The Moon is a natural satellite , or a space object that orbits around something else. In general, a moon is a natural satellite of a planet, and a planet is a special kind of natural satellite that orbits a star and also meets other conditions.
Learn more: What makes a planet a planet? The leading theory is that a Mars-sized object collided with Earth billions of years ago, and debris from this collision eventually formed the Moon.
Here is an animation that shows what this might have looked like:. We call it "the Moon" because for a long time it was the only one we knew about. Many languages have beautiful names for our Moon. Our Moon is like a desert with plains, mountains, and valleys. It also has many craters, holes created when space rocks hit the surface at a high speed. There is no air to breathe on the Moon.
The Moon travels around the Earth in an oval-shaped orbit. Scientists think the Moon was formed long, long ago when Earth crashed into a Mars-sized object. We always see the same side of the Moon from Earth.
You have to go into space to see the other side. Earth's Moon. The Latest. Full Moon Guide: November - December Viewing Copernicus.
Apollo 11 Bootprint. Credit: NASA. A composite of seven images shows the full Moon at perigee, or supermoon, during a total lunar eclipse on Sunday, Sept. Apollo 50th Anniversary. Who has Walked on the Moon? Kid-Friendly Moon Most of the planets in our solar system — and some asteroids — have moons.
The next full Moon is the Beaver Moon, and there will be a near-total lunar eclipse. NASA has selected a new Earth science mission that will study the behavior of tropical storms and thunderstorms.
Working together, two instruments could open the door for a more efficient, cost-effective way to gather key information for weather forecasting. This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about ocean worlds. Ocean Worlds Resources. Use Chemistry. The Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum area on Oct. NASA is looking into whether mixed reality technology could help with repairs and upgrades on the Cold Atom Lab aboard the space station.
A vivid aurora is seen over Earth from the International Space Station. A lunar eclipse takes place when Earth is directly between the sun and the moon, casting Earth's shadow onto the moon. A lunar eclipse can occur only during a full moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, casting the moon's shadow onto Earth. A solar eclipse can occur only during a new moon. Photos : 'Ring of fire' solar eclipse See amazing photos from stargazers. Depending on the degree to which the moon blocks the sun as seen from a particular location on Earth, a solar eclipse can be total, annular or partial.
Total solar eclipses are rare in a given location because the shadow of the moon is so small on the Earth's surface. The last total solar eclipse visible from the United States happened in August ; the next one will take place in April The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted about This means the Northern and Southern hemispheres point somewhat toward or away from the sun depending on the time of year, varying the amount of solar radiation they receive and causing the seasons.
But the moon's axis is tilted by only about 1. This means that some areas are always lit by sunlight, and other places are perpetually draped in shadow. Some ancient peoples believed the moon was a bowl of fire, while others thought it was a mirror that reflected Earth's lands and seas, but ancient Greek philosophers knew the moon was a sphere orbiting the Earth whose moonlight reflected sunlight.
The Greeks also believed the dark areas of the moon were seas while the bright regions were land, which influenced the current names for those places — "maria" and "terrae," Latin for seas and lands, respectively. The Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to use a telescope to make scientific observations of the moon, describing in a rough, mountainous surface that was quite different from the popular beliefs of his day that the moon was smooth.
In , the Soviet Union sent the first spacecraft to impact the moon's surface and returned the first photographs of its far side. This spurred a Cold War series of uncrewed missions by both the Soviet Union and the United States to observe the moon's surface. Many of these first probes were failures or only partially successful. However, over time, these early probes returned information about the moon's surface and geological history. The United States sent astronauts to the moon's orbit and surface in the s and s.
The first crewed mission to the moon was in , when the Apollo 8 astronauts orbited it. In , Apollo 11 landed the first astronauts on the moon, followed by five more successful surface missions and one, Apollo 13 , that didn't make to the moon but returned home safely.
The moon remains the only extraterrestrial body that humans have ever visited. The Apollo program's efforts returned lbs. Scientists continue to study the rocks, and have made new discoveries as technology has improved. For example, in , water was found in samples from Apollo 15, 16 and 17 — an interesting find given that previous analyses showed these rocks were quite dry.
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