Moon is first best friend of kids. I myself remember talking to Moon when i was a kid. Why moon looks so alluring to kids? Maybe because of its colour and shine.
When we gaze at the night sky, the first thing that attracts our attention is Moon. My kid often asks me that if moon is hung with some string. Thats funny indeed. But that is his imagination. Like him, many kids would be thinking in the same way. This blog is for those mothers who want to slowly introduce their kids to the world of science and reality.
All the bodies that we can see and that we cannot see in the sky are called celestial bodies or to be more precise, celestial bodies are the natural bodies outside earth's atmosphere. So now u know that moon is also a celestial body. Other examples are Sun, Stars, Planets etc. Moon is a Natural Satellite, i.e. it is a space body which orbits a planet. All natural satellites are called moon. Our planet earth has one natural satellite, i.e. the moon that we see in the sky. It orbits our planet and hence is the only natural satellite of earth. Satellites don't have their own light. They reflect Sun's light and hence appear shiny to us. If Sun wasn't there we would not be able to see the moon. The sun always illuminates one side of the moon.
AGE
Moon is almost 4.5 billion years old and formed more than 30 million years after the earth was formed. It is about 250,000 miles away from earth.
FORMATION
A large space body hit Earth, cutting off rocks from its surface. These rocks started revolving around earth due to earth's gravity and in due course of time, these rocks came together to form a big melted mass. This mass started to cool down over the period and hence moon was formed. For another 500 million years, pieces of rocks kept striking against the surface of moon causing damage in form of scars, craters, pits which can be seen using a telescope.
REVOLUTION AROUND THE EARTH
Moon takes 27 days 7 hours and 43 minutes to revolve around earth. Moon's orbit is elliptical. Looking down from North pole, we would see the moon orbiting counter clockwise from west to east.
WHY MOON HAS DIFFERENT SHAPES?
Each night we look at the moon, it appears of different shape. Some nights there is no moon at all. Its not moon which changes shape, it is how much part of moon we can see. Moon doesnot have its own light but it reflects sun's light and we see that side of moon which gets illuminated. If the entire side of moon that is lit up by the sun is facing us, we see a full moon. If only half of the moon's lit up side is facing us, we see a quarter moon. These changes in the size of the moon are called phases of the moon. It is actually the amount of moon that we see from earth depending upon how much of moon is lit up by the sun. The amount changes each day. As the moon moves around the earth, we can see different fractions of the illuminated moon. Each month our moon passes through 8 phases. These phases are named after how much moon we can see and whether the amount visible is increasing or decreasing each day.
LUNAR ECLIPSE
Eclipse occurs when light from sun is temporarily blocked off by earth or moon. There are two types of Eclipses
Solar Eclipse
Lunar Eclipse
Lunar eclipse occurs when moon travels behind earth. All moon, earth and sun comes in a straight line. In lunar eclipse, earth comes between sun and moon.
FACTS TO KNOW
1. The first man to make proper map of moon was Galileo.
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| Galileo Galilei |
2. The first spacecraft to actually orbit the moon was Luna 10 in 1966 launched by USSR.
3. First person to land on moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969. He said, " that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind ".
Till date only 12 people have been to moon and all are Americans.
4. Our moon is the 5th largest moon in solar system.
5. Moon has no atmosphere so no sound can travel.
6. We always see one side of the moon from earth. It is called near side while the other side is called far side.
7. Moon gravity is about 1/5 as compared to earth.
8. Moon is moving away from earth at about 3.8 cm every year.
9. Moon is much smaller than earth. Its diameter is 2,159 miles and that of earth is 7,917 miles i.e. 4 moons can fit into earth.
10. Moon has no air, no water and no life.
11. Moon rises in the east and sets in the west.
12. Moon is very hot during during day and very cold during night.
13. Gravitational attraction of moon and sun together cause tides on earth.
14. Eclipse of moon lasts for several hours while the moon passes through the earth's shadow.
15. On moon, we would weigh 1/6th of our weight on earth.
16. NASA wants to set up a permanent space station on moon.
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