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Interesting Fun Facts About the Moon
It is estimated that our Moon was formed 4.6 billion years ago (around 30-50 million years after the formation of the solar system)
The origin of the Moon is not unanimous among the scientific community. Nevertheless, the prevailing theory is that both the Earth and the Moon system formed after a giant clash of a Mars-sized body with the proto-Earth that blasted material into Earth’s orbit and then formed the Moon;
When it comes to its chemical composition, the lunar surface is composed of silica (45 percent), alumina (14.9-24.0 percent), lime (11.8-15.9 percent), iron oxide (5.9-14.1 percent), magnesia (7.5-9.2 percent), titanium dioxide (0.6-3.9 percent), and sodium oxide (0.6 percent);
The surface area of the moon is 14,658,000 square miles or 9.4 billion acres.
Earth is about 80 times the volume than the Moon, but both are about the same age. The earth is 81 times heavier than the moon
The crust of the Moon is, on average, about 31 miles (50 kilometres) thick;
The Moon is not a perfectly round sphere – it’s an oval, egg-shaped satellite thanks to the Earth’s gravity pull;
The Moon is the fifth largest satellite of the Solar System after Jupiter’s Ganymede, Callisto, and Io, and Saturn’s Titan satellites;
The Moon orbits Earth at an average speed of 1.28 light-seconds;
The Moon is one quarter the diameter of the Earth
There are more than 300,000 craters on the moon that are each more than 1km wide
The Moon’s temperature ranges from -279 °F (-172 °C) at night to 260 °F (126 °C) in the afternoon
The Moon’s surface gravity is roughly one-sixth of Earth’s;
The Moon gravitates around its own axis;
The diameter of the Moon is 2,159.2 miles (3,475 kilometres), i.e., a third the width of Earth;
59 percent of the surface of the Moon is visible from Earth through changes in perspective;
Babylonian astronomers were the first to understand and record the Lunar Cycles in the 5th century BC;
The lunar surface is just slightly brighter than worn asphalt but reflects sunlight and gets a high contrast from the surrounding night sky. Interestingly, the Moon reflects three times less sunlight than Earth;
Jupiter has 67 moons, Saturn has 62, Uranus 27, Neptune 14, mars 2, and earth just one
While peace treaties have been signed on Earth by countries to prevent military action, many have signed up to the Outer Space Peace Treaty to prevent the Moon from ever becoming a war zone.
