Tuesday 12 March 2013

The moon

Basic concept of  moon

 MOON : The moon is the only natural satellite of the earth ,and the fifth largest satellite in the solar system.It is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system relative to the size  of its primary, having a quarter the diameter of earth and 1/81 its mass.Moon is the second largest satellite after Io, a satellite of jupiter .circumference of moon is 11,000 km.,diameter is 3475km ,gravitational pull is 1/6th of earth. Its orbit around earth is elliptical.The maximum distance of the moon from the earth is 406,000 km and the minimum distance is 364,000 km.The average distance is 3,82,200 km.takes 27 days,7 hours, 43 min and 11.47 sec to complete one revolution around earth.Rotates on its axis in exactly the same time as it takes to complete one revolution.That is why we see only one side of the moon.To our unaided vision, moon seems to be made-up of bright and dak patches.The bright parts are the mountains and highlands,while the darker patches are low-lying planes.The highest mountains, which are 10,660 m high.They are situated at moon's south pole.Moon has no atmosphere, no twilight and no sound . Moonlight takes 1.3 sec to reach earth .It has low albedo .It reflects only 7% and the rest is absorbed. NEIL AMSTRONG and BUZZ ALDRIN reached moon on july 21, 1969 .The moon is the only celestial body other  than earth on which humans have set foot.While the union's luna programme was the first to reach the moon with  unmanned space craft in 1959, the united states nasa apolo program achieved the only manned mission to date ,begining with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by apollo 8 in1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972 , with the first being apollo 11. These missions returned over 380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop geological understanding of the moon's origins, the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history .It is thought to have formed some 4.5 billion years ago.After the apollo 17 mission in 1972 , the moon has been visited only by unmanned spacecraft , notably by the final soviet lunokhod  rover .since 2004, japan ,china, india , the united states, and the european space agency have each sent lunar orbiters.These spacecraft have contributed to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith .Future manned missions to the moon have been planed,including government

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