The Moon

The moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite and it is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the only celestial body that humans have had the chance to travel to and have landed on. The name of this planet has no other proper English name other than “the moon”. The moon is also referred to by its Latin name Luna.

The moon is always synchronous rotation at all times. What this means is that the same face of the moon is almost always facing the earth. Over time the rotation of the moon has slowed and at one time it was much faster. Now fifty-five percent of one face of the moon can be seen from Earth. The side that faces earth is referred to as the near side and of course this means that the side of the moon farthest from the earth is called the far side of the moon. Due to the fact that far side never faces earth it has also been called the dark side of the moon. Reference to the dark side of the moon is in fact a misconception. In actuality it has been found that far side of the moon is illuminated just as often as the near side, however, people are unable to see this from earth.

There are several theories about how the moon came to be. It has been estimated that the formation of the moon occurred approximately over 4 billion years ago. This would mean that moon itself was not formed until after the development of the Solar System. One theory that has been proposed to explain the formation of the moon is the Fission Theory. This theory states that it is believed the moon was actually a piece of the Earth’s crust that broke off leaving a basin that we now call the Pacific Ocean. However, this theory is not believed to be completely true as scientists feel that this require a too great a spin for the Earth.

The Giant Impact Theory is the prevailing hypothesis today about how the moon was initially formed. It is now believed that a Mars-sized body hit earth and the impact causes fragments of the Earth crust to spin into orbit. Computer programs have been created which recreate the giant impact theory and the findings are consistent with the measurements of the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system