Over the Moon

Since I blogged about rocks this week, I thought I'd talk about a giant rock, the moon.  Here are ten facts about "la lune".

1.  The length of time it takes the moon to circle the Earth is:  27 days, 7 hours, 44 minutes and 2.7 seconds.

Phases of the moon courtesy usra.edu.

2.  It would take hundreds of thousands of moons to equal the brightness of the sun.  While the moon's magnitude is -12.7, the sun's magnitude is -26.7.

3.  The moon experiences huge changes in temperature and can drop as low as -280 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 260 degrees Fahrenheit.

4.  Craters formed by asteroids and comets dot the moon's surface.  There are 300,000 craters that are at least 1 kilometre wide.  They are named after scholars, scientists, explorers and artists ex. Copernicus (a Polish astronomer)

Image courtesy static.ddmcdm.com

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5.  The moon has its own time zone.

6.  No rust forms on the moon since there is no oxygen.  Therefore, the lunar rovers left there by the astronauts should be rust-free.

7.  Footprints left on the moon by the astronauts will remain there for millions of years.

Image courtesy www.nasa.gov.

8.  No sound can be heard on the moon since there is no atmosphere.

9.  On Earth, we never see "the dark side of the moon".

10.  Only 12 people have ever walked on the moon's surface.  They are Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Sheaprd, Mitchell, Scott, Irwin, Young, Duke, Cernan and Schmitt.  Their missions took place between 1969 and 1972.

Image courtesy googlegroups.com.