The moon in the night sky is the biggest object that we can see with our naked eyes. People love to look at the moon, we plan our garden planting by the moon, and we cut our hair according to the phases of the moon.
We know a lot about our moon, but there are still a lot of things we can learn about it too.
How Much Does The Moon Weigh?
The moon is estimated to weigh about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds. That is a huge amount of weight. If you find that mind-boggling consider the fact that the moon is one-quarter the size of the earth and has about 1% of the mass of earth.
Men have been mesmerized by the moon forever. We even conquered the distance so we could travel to the moon and investigate it more closely.
Statistics
- The moon has a radius of 1,079.6 miles or 1.737.5 km
- The diameter of the moon is 2,159.2 miles or 3,475 km
- The moon has a surface area of 14.6 million square miles or 38 million square km
- The moon is less than a third of the width of the earth
Moon Seas
As man explored the moon we discovered that it has craters all over it. Some of those craters were likely caused by impacts from meteoroids or asteroids. Astronauts found dust on the moon that was left there by comets and asteroids.
The maria are the dark areas on the moon that resemble water from a distance. They are simply different types of craters.
Moon Gravity
The amount of gravity that is found on the moon is about 16.6% of the amount that we have on earth. That is why on the moon things float and astronauts have to wear special weighted boots to keep them from floating away when they are walking on the surface.
If you can run and jump for a distance of ten feet on earth you will be able to jump for a distance of sixty feet on the moon.
Does Everything Float Away?
Everything that is left on the moon by humans visiting does not necessarily float away. Astronauts have lefts tools and debris.
There are more than 70 “spacecraft vehicles” that have been abandoned on the moon.
There is also food, human waste, and other things we have left there. Humans cannot visit anywhere without leaving evidence of our having been there, and unfortunately, the evidence is often sad pieces of trash and waste.
Far Away
If you measured the distance between the earth and the moon by placing objects the same size as the earth in a line until you reached the moon you would need to line up about 32 earth to reach the moon.
Did You Know?
- Our moon is the fifth largest moon in the solar system
- The full moon that occurs each month has its own name. In December the full moon is called the cold moon.
- The moon is cold and hot. The temperature range is between -367 and 260 degrees Fahrenheit
- If you could see your shadow on the moon it would be darker than your shadow appears here on earth
- We only see one side of the moon due to synchronous rotation
- There are some remains of Eugene Shoemaker buried on the moon.
- There is a dust cloud surrounding the moon that you cannot see with the naked eye
- NASA plans to establish a base camp on the moon
- Human beings are affected by the phases of the moon, and even our sleep patterns can be changed during the full moon
- Scientists have discovered that at one time there were active volcanoes on the moon
- There are moonquakes similar to earthquakes that occur on the moon
- The moon is on Lunar Standard Time
- The moon has no atmosphere
- There have only been one dozen people walking on the surface of the moon
- It takes 27.3 days for the moon to make a full orbit around the earth
- The shape of the moon resembles the shape of a lemon
- Because there is no wind on the moon and a minimal amount of atmosphere the footprints that astronauts have made on the moon are still visible there
- No women have ever walked on the moon
FAQs
Is the moon getting farther away from the earth?
Scientists have noticed that each year the moon gets about 4cm farther away from the earth.
What makes the moon look red?
A phenom of light scattering is called Rayleigh scattering.
Is the moon as big as earth?
The moon is about one-quarter the size of the earth.