The movement of the Moon

The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite. Like the Earth, the Moon also rotates on its axis.

Video source from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8lfcrxw6s

Although we see the Moon all the time, many of us do not take time to consider our planet’s only satellite. The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in our Solar System. Considering Jupiter alone has 63 moons, this is pretty impressive. The Moon is the closest celestial object to Earth and apart from the Sun is the brightest object in the sky.

Its gravity is only about 17% of the Earth’s gravity. Since the Moon has very little atmosphere, its temperature varies radically from -153°C to 107°C on average. However, temperatures as low as -249°C have been recorded. The Moon is fairly large for a satellite, but it is quite a bit smaller than our own planet. Its diameter is one-fourth the diameter of Earth, but its mass is only 1.2% of the Earth’s mass. Its density is surprisingly low, with the satellite having only roughly half the density of Earth.

Because the Moon is in synchronous orbit with Earth, one side faces our planet at all times. The most we have been able to see directly is 59% of the Moon due to small changes in the orbit. We were unable to see the other side of the Moon until probes were able to photograph it. Although the far side of the Moon is often called the dark side of the Moon that is inaccurate. The far side of the Moon actually receives as much lights as the near side of the Moon does.

You may not know it, but there is water ice on the Moon. The water ice is located in large reservoirs at both poles of the planet where it is hidden from the Sun in deep craters. The water would not be able to exist in liquid form on the satellite because the Moon has no atmosphere to hold the water on the surface.

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