Astronomy notes:
When the Moon was given its name, astronomers, at the time, did not know that their were other planets that had moons/satellites orbiting them. So, they just called it the Moon. Now that we know that there are other moons orbiting other planets, it basically comes down to the capitalization of the name. Earth's moon is referred to as "the Moon" with a capital "M."
Other notes:
The Moon does experience quakes.
The Moon does NOT have an atmosphere.
There have only been 12 people, to this point, that have set foot on the surface of the Moon and they have all been Americans.
The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth at the rate of 3.8 cm/yr. It has been estimated that the Moon will continue to do so for approximately 50 billion years. By that point, the Moon will orbit the Earth in 47 days than the 27.3 days of what we are all accustomed to (Whether or not you think about this on a day-to-day basis).
No comments:
Post a Comment