The Moon

The night of September 27, 2012, our Earth & Space class got the opportunity to view the Moon from telescopes provided by an outside source. Because the details of outer space are unknown and can't be seen from the ground with the naked eye, it was necessary that we used telescopes, each with a different magnification. Some telescopes showed the Moon as merely a white dot, while those with a higher magnification showed the Moon in full detail. 

However, even though we got to see the Moon up close and take a picture of it with our camera, what actually is it? 

It is the second brightest object in the sky after the Sun. As the Moon orbits around the Earth once per month, the angle between the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun changes. (1) We see this as the cycle of the Moon's phases. The Moon's current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth, causes it to appear almost the same size in the sky as the Sun, allowing it to over the Sun nearly precisely in total solar eclipses. (1) The matching of apparent visual size is a coincidence. Earlier in Earth's history, the Moon was close to Earth, and had a apparent visual size greater than that of the Sun. 

The gravitational forces between the Earth an the Moon cause some interesting effects. The most obvious evidence is the tides. (1) The Moon's gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side. Since the Earth, and particularly the oceans, is not perfectly rigid, it is stretched out along the line toward the Moon. (1) From our perspective on the Earth's surface, we see two small bulges, one in the direction of the Moon and one directly opposite. (1) The effect is much stronger in the ocean water than in the solid crust so the water bulges are higher. And because the Earth rotates much faster than the Moon, the bulges move around the Earth about once a day, giving two high tides each day. 

The moon | phases, orbit, and distance from the earth. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nineplanets.org/luna.html