WHAT TO SEE
Don't let this grey globe fool you –
there are plenty of exciting regions to visit on
the Moon.
Maria
The landscape is divided into two main areas.
The dark patches are called maria, meaning
‘seas'. It was named at a time when people
thought that liquid water flowed over these
regions.
Since then, it was
discovered that the maria are areas of
solidified lava. They were formed over four
thousand million years ago, when the Moon was
volcanically active. The largest of these
regions is called ‘Oceanus Procellarum'.
Terrae
The other main regions are called ‘terrae', or
‘land'. These lightly coloured highlands are the
most ancient regions on the Moon. They are
covered in countless craters - the scars from
millions of years worth of impacts.
Crater Tycho
This eye-catching crater in the south can be
even seen from the Earth. Its giant walls are
4.5km (miles) high and 85km (53 miles) apart.
Tycho is surrounded by bright rays that stretch
half way across the globe. These are the
splashes of molten rock that splattered across
the Moon when the crater was formed by a massive
asteroid impact.
Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis is the site of the first
ever lunar landing. See if you can spot the
plaque left behind by the astronauts. It
shouldn't be too tricky - there is no wind on
the Moon, so you should still be able to follow
the footprints.
LOCAL HISTORY
The Moon has had a
place in many world mythologies. To the Romans,
the Moon was the goddess Luna. The Greeks
referred to the Moon goddess as Selene, and the
Egyptians worshiped the Moon as Isis.
Moon madness
The phases of the Moon have often been
associated with madness, giving rise to the
English word 'lunatic'.
How the Moon
was made
How the Moon formed is still unconfirmed. The
latest thinking suggests it was created after a
collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized
planet early in the Earth's history.
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TRAVEL
INFORMATION
Before you leave
Check out reports from previous visitors to the
Moon. The first manned expedition was made by
Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the
Apollo 11 mission
of 1969. Since then there have been a further
five manned missions.
When you arrive
Though the Moon is the closest body to the
Earth, we can't walk on the surface unaided.
There's no atmosphere, so it's impossible to
breathe.
The lack of atmosphere
also means there's no protection from harmful
radiation in the solar wind. But it's not all
bad news. One day we could use hydrogen stored
in the Moon's surface as a source of fuel.
SPOTTING THE MOON
FROM THE EARTH
The Moon is the
easiest thing to spot in the night sky. Even
with the naked eye, you can see quite a lot of
detail on its surface. Through a telescope it is
a stunning sight, with craters, rays and dark
regions clearly visible.
The far side of
the Moon
Only half the Moon is visible from the Earth.
This is because the time the Moon takes to spin
on its axis is exactly the same as the time it
takes to orbit the Earth.
This is no coincidence.
Because the Moon is not completely round and
bulges slightly, unbalancing its gravitational
force. This forced the Moon's rotation to slow
down, until its bulge was aligned with the
Earth.
The force exerted by
the Moon on the Earth is having a similar effect
on the Earth's rotation. Gradually the Earth is
slowing down. One day, the length of time the
Earth takes to spin round its axis will be the
same as the Moon takes to orbit us. When that
happens, we will only be able to see the Moon
from one side of the Earth.
This has already
happened on Pluto,
where you can only see its moon, Charon,
from one side of the dwarf planet.
Phases of the
Moon
Over the course of a month, the Moon appears to
grow ('wax') and shrink ('wane').
In fact, ever since
prehistoric times, the phases of the Moon have
been used a basis for calendars and time
measurement. This is how we get the length of
our month – the time that passes from one full
Moon to the next.
The phases occur
because half of the Moon is illuminated by the
Sun. But this is not always the same half that
is visible from the Earth. |
