The usual picture of the evening sky: twinkling stars, flying satellites and planes, a silent and mysterious moon. Imagine for a second that the moon has disappeared. Suddenly and forever. It seems that absolutely nothing terrible has happened. We'll do without it. An no. Chaos and cataclysms will come on earth. Why?

site about extremely curious, little-known and interesting facts about the moon.

It so happened that the Earth has a single natural satellite. It was formed almost 50 million years after the emergence of the entire solar system. This is about 4.613 billion years ago.

Earth has only one natural satellite

Dark side of the Moon

Imagine that our planet is one huge. Then the tidal wave would roll over the Earth in 24 hours and 50 minutes. This is how long the moon rises and sets.

Video about revealing facts about the moon

When we look up into the sky, both the Sun and the Moon seem to be the same size. Although in fact the Sun is 400 times larger. This is because the Moon is about 400 times closer to the Earth. Here's the math.

If you look at the Earth from the Moon, then it is 4 times larger than the full moon looks from the Earth. And it never moves across the "lunar" sky, it stands strictly in one place (again, due to synchronous rotation).

The trace left by one of the astronauts on the surface of the moon will not disappear for millions of years. The complete absence of wind and wet precipitation will securely preserve everything and almost forever.

Goddesses of the Moon

The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped moon goddesses.

Both our planet and the moon rotate absolutely synchronously

Each phase of the moon has its own:

1. New - Diana
2. Full - Selena
3. Dark Side - Hekate

Quick Facts About the Moon

• We see only 59% of the surface of our satellite.
• Under international jurisdiction, the surface of the moon is equated to international waters. It can be used by everyone and only for peaceful purposes.
• The compass on the surface of the moon is completely useless, due to the lack of a magnetic field.
• Your mobile phone is 400 times more powerful than the one that helped astronauts land in 1969.

The mysterious and silent satellite of the Earth. I wonder what you think of him when you look at the sky?

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In 1609, after the invention of the telescope, humanity was able to examine its space satellite for the first time in detail. Since then, the Moon has been the most studied cosmic body, as well as the first one that a person managed to visit.

The first thing to be dealt with is what is our satellite? The answer is unexpected: although the Moon is considered a satellite, technically it is the same full-fledged planet as the Earth. She has large dimensions - 3476 kilometers across at the equator - and a mass of 7.347 × 10 22 kilograms; The moon is only slightly inferior to, the smallest planet in the solar system. All this makes it a full-fledged participant in the Moon-Earth gravitational system.

Another such tandem in the solar system is also known, and Charon. Although the entire mass of our satellite is a little more than a hundredth of the mass of the Earth, the Moon does not revolve around the Earth itself - they have a common center of mass. And the proximity of the satellite to us gives rise to another interesting effect, tidal capture. Because of it, the Moon is always turned to the Earth with the same side.

Moreover, from the inside, the Moon is arranged as a full-fledged planet - it has a crust, a mantle and even a core, and volcanoes existed on it in the distant past. However, nothing remains of the ancient landscapes - over the course of four and a half billion years of the Moon's history, millions of tons of meteorites and asteroids fell on it, which furrowed it, leaving craters. Some blows were so strong that they broke through her bark right down to her mantle. The pits from such collisions formed the lunar seas, dark spots on the Moon, which are easily distinguishable from. Moreover, they are present exclusively on the visible side. Why? We will talk about this further.

Among the cosmic bodies, the Moon influences the Earth the most - except, perhaps, the Sun. The lunar tides, which regularly raise the water level in the world's oceans, are the most obvious, but not the strongest impact of the satellite. So, gradually moving away from the Earth, the Moon slows down the rotation of the planet - a sunny day has grown from the original 5 to the modern 24 hours. And the satellite also serves as a natural barrier against hundreds of meteorites and asteroids, intercepting them on approach to the Earth.

And without a doubt, the Moon is a tasty object for astronomers: both amateurs and professionals. Although the distance to the Moon has been measured to within a meter using laser technology, and soil samples from it have been repeatedly brought to Earth, there is still room for discoveries. For example, scientists are hunting for lunar anomalies - mysterious flashes and auroras on the surface of the moon, not all of which have an explanation. It turns out that our satellite hides much more than what is visible on the surface - let's figure out the secrets of the moon together!

Topographic map of the moon

Characteristics of the Moon

The scientific study of the moon is over 2200 years old today. The movement of a satellite in the Earth's sky, the phases and distance from it to the Earth were described in detail by the ancient Greeks - and the internal structure of the Moon and its history are being studied to this day by spacecraft. Nevertheless, centuries of work by philosophers, and then by physicists and mathematicians, have provided very accurate data about how our Moon looks and moves, and why it is the way it is. All information about the satellite can be divided into several categories, mutually following from each other.

Orbital characteristics of the Moon

How does the moon move around the earth? If our planet were motionless, the satellite would rotate in an almost perfect circle, from time to time slightly approaching and moving away from the planet. But after all, the Earth itself around the Sun - the Moon has to constantly "catch up" with the planet. And our Earth is not the only body with which our satellite interacts. The Sun, which is 390 times farther from the Earth than the Moon, is 333,000 times more massive than the Earth. And even taking into account the inverse square law, according to which the intensity of any energy source drops sharply with distance, the Sun attracts the Moon 2.2 times stronger than the Earth!

Therefore, the final trajectory of our satellite resembles a spiral, and even a difficult one. The axis of the lunar orbit fluctuates, the Moon itself periodically approaches and moves away, and on a global scale it completely flies away from the Earth. The same oscillations lead to the fact that the visible side of the Moon is not the same hemisphere of the satellite, but its different parts, which alternately turn towards the Earth due to the "swaying" of the satellite in orbit. These movements of the Moon in longitude and latitude are called librations, and allow you to look beyond the far side of our satellite long before the first flyby of spacecraft. From east to west, the Moon rotates 7.5 degrees, and from north to south - 6.5. Therefore, from the Earth it is easy to see both poles of the Moon.

The specific orbital characteristics of the Moon are useful not only to astronomers and astronauts - for example, the supermoon is especially appreciated by photographers: the phase of the Moon in which it reaches its maximum size. This is a full moon during which the moon is at perigee. Here are the main parameters of our satellite:

• The Moon's orbit is elliptical, its deviation from a perfect circle is about 0.049. Taking into account fluctuations in orbits, the minimum distance of the satellite to the Earth (perigee) is 362 thousand kilometers, and the maximum distance (apogee) is 405 thousand kilometers.
• The common center of mass of the Earth and the Moon is located 4.5 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth.
• A sidereal month - the complete passage of the Moon in its orbit - takes 27.3 days. However, for a complete revolution around the Earth and a change in the lunar phases, it takes 2.2 days more - after all, during the time that the Moon goes in its orbit, the Earth flies by the thirteenth part of its own orbit around the Sun!
• The moon is in a tidal lock on the Earth - it rotates around its axis at the same speed as around the Earth. Because of this, the Moon is constantly turned to the Earth by the same side. This condition is typical for satellites that are very close to the planet.

• Night and day on the Moon are very long - half an Earth month.
• In those periods when the Moon comes out from behind the globe, it can be seen in the sky - the shadow of our planet gradually slides off the satellite, allowing the Sun to illuminate it, and then closes it back. Changes in the illumination of the Moon, visible from the Earth, are called her. During the new moon, the satellite is not visible in the sky, in the phase of the young moon its thin crescent appears, resembling a curl of the letter “P”, in the first quarter the moon is exactly half lit, and during the full moon it is noticeably best. Further phases - the second quarter and the old moon - occur in reverse order.

An interesting fact: since the lunar month is shorter than the calendar month, sometimes there can be two full moons in one month - the second is called the “blue moon”. It is as bright as an ordinary full - it illuminates the Earth at 0.25 lux (for example, normal lighting inside a house is 50 lux). The Earth itself illuminates the Moon 64 times stronger - as much as 16 lux. Of course, all the light is not your own, but reflected sunlight.

• The Moon's orbit is inclined to the plane of the Earth's orbit and crosses it regularly. The inclination of the satellite is constantly changing, varying between 4.5° and 5.3°. It takes more than 18 years to change the inclination of the moon.
• The moon moves around the earth at a speed of 1.02 km/s. This is much less than the speed of the Earth around the Sun - 29.7 km / s. The maximum spacecraft speed achieved by the Helios-B solar probe was 66 kilometers per second.

Physical parameters of the Moon and its composition

In order to understand how big the Moon is and what it consists of, it took people a long time. Only in 1753, the scientist R. Boskovic managed to prove that the Moon does not have a significant atmosphere, as well as liquid seas - when covered by the Moon, the stars disappear instantly, when the presence would make it possible to observe their gradual “fading”. It took another 200 years for the Soviet Luna-13 station in 1966 to measure the mechanical properties of the lunar surface. And nothing was known about the far side of the Moon until 1959, when the Luna-3 apparatus failed to take its first pictures.

The crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft brought the first samples to the surface in 1969. They also became the first people to walk on the moon - until 1972, 6 ships landed on it, and 12 astronauts landed. The reliability of these flights was often doubted - however, many points of criticism came from their ignorance in space affairs. The American flag, which, according to conspiracy theorists, “could not fly in the airless space of the Moon,” is in fact solid and static - it was specially reinforced with solid threads. This was done specifically to make beautiful pictures - the sagging canvas is not so spectacular.

Many of the distortions in colors and landforms in the reflections on the helmets of the spacesuits in which counterfeiting was sought were due to the gold plating on the UV-protective glass. Soviet cosmonauts, who watched the broadcast of the landing of the astronauts in real time, also confirmed the authenticity of what was happening. And who can deceive an expert in his field?

And complete geological and topographic maps of our satellite are compiled to this day. In 2009, the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) space station not only delivered the most detailed images of the Moon in history, but also proved the presence of a large amount of frozen water on it. He also put an end to the debate about whether there were people on the moon by filming the traces of the Apollo team from low orbit of the moon. The device was equipped with equipment from several countries of the world, including Russia.

As new space nations like China and private companies get involved in lunar exploration, new data is coming in every day. We have collected the main parameters of our satellite:

• The surface area of ​​the Moon is 37.9 x 10 6 square kilometers - about 0.07% of the total area of ​​the Earth. Incredibly, this is only 20% more than the area of ​​​​all human-inhabited areas on our planet!
• The average density of the Moon is 3.4 g/cm3. It is 40% less than the density of the Earth - primarily due to the fact that the satellite is deprived of many heavy elements like iron, which our planet is rich in. In addition, 2% of the mass of the Moon is regolith - a small crumb of stone created by cosmic erosion and meteorite impacts, the density of which is lower than ordinary rock. Its thickness in some places reaches tens of meters!
• Everyone knows that the Moon is much smaller than the Earth, which affects its gravity. The acceleration of free fall on it is 1.63 m/s 2 - only 16.5 percent of the entire force of gravity of the Earth. The astronauts' jumps on the moon were very high, even though their spacesuits weighed 35.4 kilograms - almost like knightly armor! At the same time, they were still holding back: falling in a vacuum was quite dangerous. Below is a video of the astronaut jumping from a live broadcast.

• The lunar seas cover about 17% of the entire Moon - mainly its visible side, which is covered by them by almost a third. They are traces of impacts of especially heavy meteorites, which literally tore off its crust from the satellite. In these places, only a thin, half-kilometer layer of hardened lava - basalt - separates the surface from the Moon's mantle. Since the concentration of solids increases closer to the center of any large cosmic body, there is more metal in the lunar seas than anywhere else on the Moon.
• The main landform of the Moon is craters and other derivatives of impacts and shock waves, which are thorasteroids. Lunar mountains and circuses were built huge and changed the structure of the surface of the moon beyond recognition. Their role was especially strong at the beginning of the history of the Moon, when it was still liquid - the falls raised whole waves of molten stone. This was also the reason for the formation of the lunar seas: the side facing the Earth was more hot due to the concentration of heavy substances in it, which is why asteroids affected it more than the cool reverse side. The reason for this uneven distribution of matter was the attraction of the Earth, especially strong at the beginning of the moon's history, when it was closer.

• In addition to craters, mountains and seas, there are caves and cracks in the moon - surviving witnesses of those times when the bowels of the moon were also hot, like, and volcanoes acted on it. These caves often contain water ice, as do the craters at the poles, which is why they are often considered as sites for future lunar bases.
• The real color of the Moon's surface is very dark, closer to black. All over the moon, there are a variety of colors - from turquoise blue to almost orange. The light gray hue of the Moon from the Earth and in the pictures is due to the high illumination of the Moon by the Sun. Due to the dark color, the surface of the satellite reflects only 12% of all rays falling from our star. If the moon were brighter - and during full moons it would be as bright as day.

How was the moon formed?

The study of the minerals of the Moon and its history is one of the most difficult disciplines for scientists. The surface of the Moon is open to cosmic rays, and there is nothing to retain heat near the surface - therefore, the satellite heats up to 105 ° C during the day, and cools down to -150 ° C at night. The two-week duration of day and night increases the effect on the surface - and as a result, the minerals of the Moon change beyond recognition with time. However, we managed to find out something.

Today, the Moon is believed to be the product of a collision between a large planetary embryo, Theia, and the Earth, which occurred billions of years ago when our planet was completely molten. Part of the planet that collided with us (and it was the size of ) was absorbed - but its core, along with part of the surface matter of the Earth, was thrown into orbit by inertia, where it remained in the form of the Moon.

This proves the deficiency of iron and other metals on the Moon already mentioned above - by the time Theia tore out a piece of terrestrial matter, most of the heavy elements of our planet were attracted by gravity inward, to the core. This collision affected the further development of the Earth - it began to rotate faster, and its axis of rotation tilted, which made possible the change of seasons.

Further, the Moon developed as an ordinary planet - it formed an iron core, mantle, crust, lithospheric plates and even its own atmosphere. However, the small mass and composition poor in heavy elements led to the fact that the bowels of our satellite quickly cooled down, and the atmosphere evaporated from the high temperature and the absence of a magnetic field. However, some processes are still taking place inside - due to movements in the lithosphere of the Moon, moonquakes sometimes occur. They represent one of the main dangers for future colonizers of the Moon: their scope reaches 5 and a half points on the Richter scale, and they last much longer than the earth's - there is no ocean capable of absorbing the impulse of the movement of the earth's interior.

The main chemical elements on the Moon are silicon, aluminium, calcium and magnesium. The minerals that form these elements are similar to those of the earth and are even found on our planet. However, the main difference between the minerals of the Moon is the absence of exposure to water and oxygen produced by living beings, a high proportion of meteorite impurities and traces of cosmic radiation. The ozone layer of the Earth was formed quite a long time ago, and the atmosphere burns most of the mass of falling meteorites, allowing water and gases to slowly but surely change the face of our planet.

The future of the moon

The Moon is the first cosmic body after Mars, which claims to be the first human colonization. In a sense, the Moon has already been mastered - the USSR and the USA left state regalia on the satellite, and orbital radio telescopes hide behind the far side of the Moon from the Earth, the generator of many interferences on the air. However, what awaits our satellite in the future?

The main process, which has already been mentioned more than once in the article, is the distance of the Moon due to tidal acceleration. It happens quite slowly - the satellite flies away by no more than 0.5 centimeters per year. However, something completely different is important here. Distancing itself from the Earth, the Moon slows down its rotation. Sooner or later, a moment may come when a day on Earth will last as long as a lunar month - 29–30 days.

However, the removal of the moon will have its limit. After reaching it, the Moon will begin to approach the Earth in turns - and much faster than it moved away. However, it will not succeed in completely crashing into it. For 12-20 thousand kilometers from the Earth, its Roche cavity begins - the gravitational limit at which a satellite of a planet can maintain a solid shape. Therefore, the Moon on approach will be torn into millions of small fragments. Some of them will fall to Earth, setting up a bombardment thousands of times more powerful than nuclear, and the rest will form a ring around the planet like . However, it will not be so bright - the rings of gas giants are made of ice, which is many times brighter than the dark rocks of the Moon - they will not always be visible in the sky. The Ring of the Earth will create a problem for the astronomers of the future - if, of course, by then there is someone left on the planet.

Moon colonization

However, all this will happen in billions of years. Until then, mankind considers the Moon as the first potential object for space colonization. But what exactly is meant by "exploring the moon"? Now we will look at the nearest prospects together.

Many imagine space colonization to be similar to the New Age colonization of Earth - finding valuable resources, extracting them, and then bringing them back home. However, this does not apply to space - in the next couple of hundred years, the delivery of a kilogram of gold, even from the nearest asteroid, will be more expensive than its extraction from the most difficult and dangerous mines. Also, the Moon is unlikely to act as a “dacha sector of the Earth” in the near future - although there are large deposits of valuable resources, it will be difficult to grow food there.

But our satellite may well become a base for further space exploration in promising directions - for example, the same Mars. The main problem of astronautics today is the restrictions on the weight of spacecraft. To launch, you have to build monstrous structures that need tons of fuel - after all, you need to overcome not only the gravity of the Earth, but also the atmosphere! And if this is an interplanetary ship, then you also need to refuel it. This seriously constrains designers, forcing them to prefer parsimony over functionality.

The moon is much better suited for the launch pad of spacecraft. The absence of an atmosphere and the low speed to overcome the Moon's gravity - 2.38 km/s versus 11.2 km/s of the Earth - make launches much easier. And the satellite's mineral deposits make it possible to save on the weight of fuel - a stone around the neck of astronautics, which occupies a significant proportion of the mass of any apparatus. If you expand the production of rocket fuel on the Moon, it will be possible to launch large and complex spacecraft assembled from parts brought from Earth. And assembly on the Moon will be much easier than in Earth orbit - and much more reliable.

The technologies that exist today make it possible, if not completely, then partially, to implement this project. However, any steps in this direction require risk. The huge investment will require research for the right minerals, as well as the development, delivery and testing of modules for future lunar bases. And one estimated cost of launching even the initial elements is capable of ruining an entire superpower!

Therefore, the colonization of the Moon is not so much the work of scientists and engineers as the work of people around the world to achieve such a valuable unity. For in the unity of mankind lies the true strength of the Earth.

The moon (lat. Luna) is the only natural satellite of the Earth. It is the second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system. The mistress of the night sky has always attracted human attention. Numerous signs, rituals, beliefs of people are associated with it. Many lunar mysteries have already been revealed. However, interesting facts about the Moon, which cannot be unambiguously explained by scientists, continue to excite people's minds.

The moon was created as a result of the collision. Scientists believe that the Moon was formed from the debris of the Earth and a space object the size of Mars after their collision.

2. 206 thousand 264 moons

In order for the night to be as bright as during the day, about three hundred thousand Moons would be needed, and 206 thousand 264 Moons would have to be in the full moon phase.

3. People always see the same side of the moon

People always see the same side of the moon. The gravitational field of the Earth slows down the rotation of the Moon around its axis. Therefore, the rotation of the Moon around its axis occurs in the same time as its rotation around the Earth.

4 Far Side Of The Moon

The far side of the Moon is more mountainous than that seen from Earth. This is due to the force of gravity of the Earth, which has led to the fact that on the side turned towards our planet, a thinner crust.

5. Moon Tree Seeds

More than 400 trees growing on Earth were brought from the Moon. The seeds of these trees were taken by the Apollo 14 crew in 1971, orbited the moon and returned to Earth.

6 Asteroid Cruitney

The Earth may have other natural satellites. The asteroid Cruitney moves in orbital resonance with the Earth and makes a full revolution around the planet in 770 years.

7 Craters On The Surface Of The Moon

Craters on the surface of the Moon were left by meteorites 4.1 - 3.8 billion years ago. They are still visible only because, in geological terms, the Moon is not as active as the Earth.

8. There is water on the moon

There is water on the moon. There is no atmosphere on the Earth's satellite, but there is frozen water in shaded craters and under the soil surface.

9. The moon is not a perfect ball

The moon is not really a perfect ball. It is rather egg-shaped due to the influence of the Earth's gravity. In addition, its center of mass is not located at the center of the cosmic body, but about two kilometers away from the center.

10. Name crater...

The craters of the Moon were first called by the names of famous scientists, artists and explorers, and later by the names of American and Russian cosmonauts.

11. Moonquakes

On the Earth's satellite, there are earth ... moonquakes. They are caused by the gravitational influence of the Earth. Their epicenter is several kilometers below the surface of the moon.

12. Exosphere

The moon has an atmosphere called the exosphere. It is made up of helium, neon and argon.

13. Dancing dust

Dancing dust exists on the moon. It hovers above the surface of the moon (more intense at sunrise or sunset). Dust particles rise up due to electromagnetic forces.

The satellite of the Earth is more like a planet. The Earth and Moon are a double planet system, similar to the Pluto + Charon system.

15. The moon causes the ebb and flow on Earth

The moon causes the tides to ebb and flow on the earth. The gravitational influence of the moon affects the oceans of our planet. The highest tides occur during the full or new moon.

16. The moon is moving away from the Earth

The moon is moving further and further away from the earth. Initially, the Earth's satellite was 22,000 kilometers from its surface, and now it is almost 400,000 kilometers away.

Every inhabitant of our planet looked into the night sky, saw the moon. Some generally accepted information about the satellite of the planet is known even to schoolchildren. But there are interesting facts about the moon that are not known to the general public.

Earth satellite

In its current form, the Moon was formed after the collision of the planet with a space object - this is the first scientific version. The dimensions of the object are comparable to the planet Mars, and a satellite appeared from the earth fragment. There is a second theory that claims that the satellite was formed from a breakaway part of the Earth, which was located on the site of today's Pacific Ocean.

Another theory proves that a body of geological rocks wandered through the expanses of the universe until it was pulled by the Earth's gravity. Some scientists suggest that the Moon was formed from asteroids sintered into a single mass. Proven, reasoned, popular in the scientific community, consider the Theory of Rings. The theory claims that some emerging protoplanet collided with the Earth, breaking up into fragments that eventually formed a satellite.

The moon does not emit enough light to illuminate the planet as during the day, it would take 300,000 satellites in the full moon phase. Earthlings look at one side of the Moon - the satellite rotates around an axis much slower than the Earth. There are more mountains on the far side of the satellite than on the one that earthlings see. The smoothing of the mountains occurred under the influence of gravity, the visible lunar side has a thinner crust.

There are interesting craters on the surface of the Moon, they were left by cosmic meteorites 4 billion years ago. The geological activity of the moon is much less than that of the earth, so the ancient craters have been preserved in their original form. Lunar craters are named after famous explorers, artists, astronauts.

The good news for scientists was that frozen water was found on the satellite. Ice accumulates in shaded underground craters where there is no air. An analogue of the earth's atmosphere is the lunar exosphere, consisting of helium, argon, and neon. Contrary to popular belief, the satellite is not spherical in shape, it is more like an egg - this is due to the influence of the earth's gravity.

The center of mass of the Moon is not in the middle of the cosmic body, but is displaced by 2,000 meters. Moonquakes occur regularly, caused by the influence of the planet's gravitational forces. Dancing dust soars above the lunar expanses, which is visible from the Earth at sunset and dawn. Particles of lunar dust rise above the surface under the influence of electromagnetic forces.

The tides in the earth's oceans are under the gravitational influence of the moon. A strong effect is observed during the full moon. Psychologists, psychiatrists have noticed that during the periods of the new moon there are exacerbations in patients of psychiatric clinics. There are many theories explaining this pattern, they are not sufficiently proven. It is known that the moon affects human sleep - on the full moon, many earthlings have insomnia, others have nightmares.

The lunar weather is characterized by rapid changes - during the day at the equator the temperature fluctuates from -173°C frost to +127°C heat. A day on the satellite is equal to 29.5 Earth days, in a month the sun travels its path from sunrise to sunset. Astronomers claim that the Earth has at least one more satellite. Such a satellite is called the asteroid Cruitney, which makes a revolution around the Earth in 770 years. It is possible that there are other similar satellites, with an even longer turnover period.

In scientific terms, the Moon and Earth are a double planet system. Gradually, the satellite "flies away" from the Earth. Initially, the Moon was at a distance of 22 thousand km. Today it is almost 400 thousand km. One of the interesting lunar mysteries is the lack of magnetism in the celestial body, which is proved by the readings of modern instruments and mathematical calculations of scientists of past generations. It is even more strange that the astronauts brought with them stones that had full magnetic properties. This mystery has puzzled modern scientists for many years.

American astronauts on the moon

It is well known that he was the first earthling to set foot on the lunar surface. There are less public facts about the Moon and brave earthlings who have visited a distant satellite. Between 1969 and 1972, 12 Americans walked on the moon. We bring to the attention of the reader some interesting, but little-known amazing facts.

The US flag, near which astronaut B. Aldrin stands, is captured in the most famous lunar photograph. This flag fell as the rocket launched for its return flight to Earth. Subsequent astronauts planted American flags, some of them are still flying, but due to strong solar radiation, they lost their color and became snow-white.

The oldest person to visit the Moon is Alan Shepard. This American was suspended from flying due to hearing problems, but Alan overcame the disease, becoming a member of the astronaut team a few years later. Arriving at the satellite at the age of 47, he distinguished himself by making the longest throw with a golf club in the history of sports. It is a little-known fact that the courageous astronaut cried when he stepped on the soft lunar firmament, but could not brush away the traitorous tears because of the spacesuit.

On Earth, the astronauts were explained that they are representatives of all earthlings, therefore they should not conduct religious rituals on the expedition, so as not to offend the feelings of believers of other religions. Buzz Aldrin gracefully circumvented the ban. After the landing was completed, he asked all earthlings on the radio to celebrate the historic event, thanking those who were involved in this. After that, the savvy guy took out a loaf of bread, a flask of wine, said words of gratitude from the Bible, thus performing the ritual of Christian communion.

The commander of Apollo 15 decided to honor the American and Soviet cosmonauts who died during unsuccessful launches. David Scott asked the artist to make a small statue symbolizing the heroes who died in pursuit of a cosmic dream.

The Belgian Paul Hoeydonk made a figurine the size of a finger with no signs of race, nationality, gender. The names of 14 dead astronauts from the USA and the USSR were written on the memorial plaque. In fact, at that time there were 2 more dead Russian cosmonauts, but the Americans did not know about them.

When it became clear that NASA was curtailing the program due to lack of funding, the next flight of the module would be the last - the scientific community put pressure on the leadership to send its representative on the flight.

Until then, only test pilots had flown, but on the last Apollo 17, it was decided to take on the crew one of the many scientists who were undergoing space training with almost no hope. Harvard geology professor Harrison Schmitt was the lucky one. For three days on the Moon, the professor collected and studied lunar rocks with practically no sleep, bringing curious samples that still cause a lot of controversy in narrow scientific circles.

Myths about aliens

After 1972, the Apollo program was closed. Fans of conspiracy theories dismiss the idea that the reason for the curtailment of space programs is the lack of funds and the financial unprofitability of flights. They consider this strange behavior from their point of view to be the fact that the astronauts discovered aliens on the moon who threatened to destroy the Earth. The world government was forced to stop further flights under the threat of a thermonuclear explosion.

Adherents of this theory compare ancient myths and facts obtained by science, seeing confirmation of their fears. Back in the 19th century, some scientists put forward theories about the existence of aliens - the evidence was the readings of telescopes. With a multiple increase, numerous craters are visible, similar to the structures of ancient cities.

Modern video footage made by astronauts has added questions to incredulous ufologists. Some have come to the startling conclusion that the flight of American astronauts is a hoax.

The moon is not only a planetary satellite, it is a source of inspiration for lovers or creative people. Moonlight is an invariable attribute of artistic canvases with night landscapes. The night light is mentioned in poems, prose, science fiction and romance novels, fairy tales for children, horror films. The heaviest of the modern bony inhabitants of the seas is the moon fish, the leader in fertility among vertebrates.

1. There is a monument to the fallen astronauts on the Moon. This is a small aluminum figurine of an astronaut in a spacesuit, a little over 8 cm high. Next to the figurine there is a plaque with the names of people who gave their lives for space exploration.

2. The first living creatures to fly around the moon in a spaceship were Central Asian turtles. They were accompanied by flies, beetles, plants, algae, seeds, and bacteria.

3. There is a large temperature difference on the surface of the Moon: from -100°С to +160°С. On Earth, the maximum temperature difference: from -49 to +7 degrees. At the same time, such a drop is not the norm on Earth, since it was recorded only once - in 1916 in Montana (USA).

4. The landscape of the moon can be seen with a regular home telescope. For example, home telescopes clearly show the seas and lunar craters.

5. Even in the daytime above the Moon there is a black starry sky, since our satellite does not have its own atmosphere. The Earth is also visible from the Moon day and night. At the same time, the position of the Earth's disk practically does not change.

6. The force of gravity on the Moon is 6 times less than on Earth. Therefore, on the Moon, an average person could lift a load equal in gravity to his own weight.

7. It will take about 20 days to fly to the moon by plane. The car would have to travel longer - about six months, if you move without stopping at a cruising speed of 90-100 kilometers per hour.

8. From the Earth, the diameter of the Moon and the Sun seem to be the same. Thanks to this amazing coincidence, earthlings can observe a solar eclipse.

9. The Earth's satellite has its own Alps, Apennines, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Caucasus Mountains. The mountains located on the visible side of the Moon are clearly visible in an amateur telescope.

10. In 2010, NASA proposed the Avatars lunar project. The idea is as follows: robots are sent to the moon, and scientists, wearing special suits, control them from the earth. If this project is implemented, then it will be possible not to send people to the Moon, but to conduct all research from the surface of their native planet.

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