Moon!
Hello everyone, and Welcome to... Meapz4Science! Today we will not talk about a planet, but we will talk about... The Moon! Today we have a guest with me. She is Science Fairy! "Yep! I am here to talk about the moon with you!" Thank you! So, Let's get started!
Alright, first we will talk about it's brightness and darkness. "Right. If the moon doesn't produce light on its own, how is it the second brightest object in the solar system?" I will tell you. When it is night time here in America, the sun is "behind" us, right? "Yes. And the moon is in front of us." So the moon is "facing" the sun, so the light is reflecting off the Moon's surface. "Oh okay, I understand now."
Okay, now we will talk about it's phases. "This will answer your 'If the moon is a sphere, how come I see it as a crescent?' question." If you have that question, then listen up! The reason you see it like that is because the sunlight is actually being blocked by the Earth's shadow. When a new moon occurs, this means that the Earth is letting almost no light get to the moon at all. "When a full moon occurs, the Earth is out of the way of the sunlight, leaving the moon full in all its glory!" Right. You can see all the phases in this diagram:
Okay, now we will- "Hang on, hang on. You haven't even explained how the Moon got here in the FIRST PLACE!" I was getting to that! Okay, STORY TIME! When the Earth was still young and forming, an object about the size of Mars collided with the Earth, "Spraying molten rock all into the Earth's orbit. All that rock eventually clumped together to form the satellite we call the Moon!" THE END! There you go. Happy now?
Alright, now you have all heard the phrase 'Once in a blue moon' Once in your life, but what does it mean? "We are going to tell you. It actually does not mean the moon turns blue." What really happens is that two full moons appear in a row. "Even though the moon can't go blue, the angle of the sun does sometimes make it appear orange n the sky."
Okay, now we will talk about The moon's orbiting pattern. The moon rotates once every 27 days or so. "The moon completes an orbit around earth every 29 days, or around a month's time." This means we always only see one side of the moon. "Because we are the superstitious people that we are, it led to the theory that aliens live on the dark side of the moon and stuff." I'd rather not find out the hard way.
As we all know, the moon's surface isn't really... perfect. "Yeah. It isn't really a sphere like some people think." There are tons and tons of craters from meteors that have hit the moon. "But how come we don't have those on Earth? I mean, our gravity IS stronger." Well, unlike us, the moon doesn't have an atmosphere to burn them up. "Oh, okay." It also has dark patches we call seas, even though they don't have water on or in them.
Okay, now it is time for fun facts on the Moon and stuff!!
1) The moon is Earth's only satellite.
2) When a Super moon occurs, the moon comes closer to the earth and becomes really big.
3) The words lunatic and looney come from the Latin word for moon, Luna.
Alright, that's all for today. I'm Emma The Meap, "And I'm Science Fairy," And we will see you next time. BYE!!!
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