The Moon - Our Closest Neighbour

With a diameter of 3476km, The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite.The moon is a very interesting place. The Moon was first visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 in 1959. It is the only extraterrestrial body to have been visited by humans. The first landing was on July 20, 1969 (one of the most memorable moments in the history of the earth); the last was in December 1972. The Moon is also the only body from which samples have been returned to Earth. In the summer of 1994, the Moon was mapped by the little spacecraft named Clementine, and again in 1999 by Lunar Prospector.

The composition of the early rocks found on Earth and the soil of the Moon is very similar. This is reinforced by the leading theory of the creation of the moon where the earth was hit by a meteor when the solar system was very young. A huge chunk of earth fell off and later became the moon.Neil Armstrong’s famous words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” was said when he was the first man to walk on the moon. But recently, a study using cutting edge voice analysis technology has shown that there is a very high chance that Neil Armstrong actually said, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Because the time it takes the moon to rotate, and the time it takes for the moon to orbit earth is roughly the same, we always see the same side of the Earth. Phases of the moon are achieved by the position of the sun, earth and the moon.

The surface of the moon is heavily cratered, just like mercury, because of the many meteors that bombarded the moon many billions of years ago.

There is not atmosphere on the moon, so the footprints that were left by astronauts many years ago will remain there forever… or until a meteor crashes into them or someone naughty goes onto the moon and walks all over them.

Recently, water has been found on the moon in the form of ice. The ice was found around the southern hemisphere of the moon where craters protect some areas of land from the sun! But know we have discovered water on the moon, what are we going to do with it? Only time can tell us the answer to this question.