What are the dark spots on the moon's surface called? Why are there spots on the moon? Or maybe they are aliens

The science

When the moon is full, the bright light of the moon grabs our attention, but the moon holds other secrets that may surprise you.

1. There are four types of lunar months.

Our months correspond approximately to the period of time it takes for our natural satellite to go through full phases.

From excavations, scientists have found that people since the Paleolithic era have counted days by associating them with the phases of the moon. But there are actually four different types of lunar months.

1. Anomalistic- the length of time it takes for the Moon to travel around the earth, measured from one perigee (the closest point of the Moon's orbit to the Earth) to another, which takes 27 days, 13 hours, 18 minutes, 37.4 seconds.

2. Nodal- the length of time it takes for the Moon to pass from the point of intersection of the orbits and return to it, which takes 27 days, 5 hours, 5 minutes, 35.9 seconds.

3. Sidereal- the length of time it takes for the moon to go around the earth, guided by the stars, which takes 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.5 seconds.

4. Synodic- the length of time it takes for the moon to travel around the earth, guided by the sun (this is the time interval between two consecutive conjunctions with the sun - the transition from one new moon to another), which takes 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.7 seconds ... The synodic month is taken as a basis in many calendars and is used to separate the year.

2.From Earth, we see a little more than half of the moon

Most reference books mention that due to the fact that the Moon rotates only once during each revolution around the Earth, we never see more than half of its entire surface. In truth, we manage to see more during its elliptical orbit, namely 59 percent.

The moon's rotation speed is the same, but not its rotation frequency, which allows us to see only the edge of the disk from time to time. In other words, the two movements do not occur perfectly in sync, even though they converge towards the end of the month. This effect is called longitude libration.

Thus, the Moon wobbles towards the east and west, allowing us to see a little further in longitude from each edge. The remaining 41 percent we'll never see from the Earth, and if someone was on the other side of the Moon, then he would never see the Earth.

3. It takes hundreds of thousands of moons to match the brightness of the sun

The apparent magnitude of the Full Moon is -12.7, but the Sun is 14 times brighter, with an apparent magnitude of -26.7. The brightness ratio of the Sun and the Moon is 398.110 to 1... So many moons would be required to match the brightness of the sun. But this is all a controversial issue, since there is no way to accommodate so many Moons in the sky.
The sky is 360 degrees, including the half beyond the horizon that we cannot see, and thus there are more than 41,200 square degrees in the sky. The moon is only half a degree across, which gives an area of 0.2 square degrees. So you can fill the entire sky, including the half under our feet, with 206,264 full moons and you still have 191,836 to match the brightness of the sun.

4. The first and last quarter of the moon and half as bright as the full moon

If the surface of the Moon were like a perfectly smooth billiard ball, then the brightness of its surface would be the same everywhere. In this case, it would be twice as bright.

But the moon has a very uneven relief, especially near the border of light and shadow. The landscape of the Moon is permeated with countless shadows from mountains, boulders and even the smallest particles of moon dust. In addition, the lunar surface is covered in dark areas. Ultimately, in the first quarter, the moon 11 times less bright than when it is full... In fact, the moon is slightly brighter in the first quarter than in the last, as some parts of the moon reflect light better in this phase than in other phases.

5.95 percent of the illuminated moon is half as bright as the full moon

Believe it or not, about 2.4 days before and after the full moon, the moon is half as bright as the full moon. Although 95 percent of the Moon is illuminated at this time, and will appear to most ordinary observers as a full moon, its brightness is about 0.7 magnitudes less than full phase, making it half as bright.

6. Seen from the Moon, the Earth also goes through phases

However, these the phases are opposite to the lunar phases that we see from Earth. When we see the new moon, the full Earth can be observed from the Moon. When the Moon is in the first quarter, then the Earth is in the last quarter, and when the Moon is between the second quarter and the full moon, then the Earth is visible in the form of a crescent, and finally, the Earth in a new phase is visible when we see the full moon.

From any point on the Moon (except for the farthest side, from where the Earth cannot be seen), the Earth is in the same place in the sky.

From the moon, the earth appears to be four times larger than the full moon when we observe it, and depending on the state of the atmosphere, it shines 45 to 100 times brighter than the full moon. When the full Earth is visible in the lunar sky, it illuminates the surrounding lunar landscape with a bluish gray light.

7. Eclipses also change when viewed from the moon

Not only do the phases change places when viewed from the moon, but also lunar eclipses are solar eclipses as viewed from the moon... In this case, the Earth's disk covers the Sun.

If it completely covers the Sun, a narrow strip of light surrounds the dark disk of the Earth, which is illuminated by the Sun. This ring has a reddish tint, as it is due to the combination of sunrise and sunset light that occurs at that moment. This is why, during a total lunar eclipse, the Moon takes on a reddish or coppery hue.

When a total eclipse of the Sun occurs on Earth, an observer from the Moon can see for two or three hours a small, distinct dark spot slowly moving across the Earth's surface. This dark shadow of the moon that falls on the earth is called umber. But unlike a lunar eclipse, when the Moon is completely absorbed by the Earth's shadow, the Moon's shadow is smaller by several hundred kilometers in width when it touches the Earth, appearing only as a dark spot.

8. The craters of the moon are named according to certain rules

Lunar craters were formed by asteroids and comets that collided with the Moon. It is believed that only on the near side of the moon approximately 300,000 craters, more than 1 km wide.

Craters named after scientists and researchers... For instance, Copernicus crater was named after Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer who discovered in the 1500s that planets move around the sun. Archimedes crater named after a mathematician Archimedes who made many mathematical discoveries in the 3rd century BC.

Tradition assign personal names to lunar formations started in 1645 Michael van Langren(Michael van Langren ) , Brussels engineer, who named the main features of the Moon after kings and great people on Earth. On his lunar map, he named the largest lunar plain ( Oceanus procellarum) in honor of its patron saint Spanish Philip IV.

But just six years later, Giovanni Batista Riccoli ( Giovanni Battista Riccioli ) from Bologna created his own lunar map, removing the names that he gave van Langren and instead gave names to mostly famous astronomers... His map became the basis of the system that has survived to this day. In 1939, British Astronomical Association released a catalog of officially named lunar formations. " Who's Who on the Moon", indicating the names of all entities adopted International Astronomical Union(MAC).

To date MAC continues to decide what names to give the craters on the Moon, along with names for all astronomical objects. MAC organizes the naming of each specific celestial body around a specific topic.

The names of the craters today can be divided into several groups. As a rule, the craters of the moon were called in honor of deceased scientists, scientists and researchers who have already become known for their contributions in their respective fields. So craters around the crater Apollo and Moscow seas on the moon will be named after American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts.

9. The moon has a huge temperature range

If you start looking on the Internet for temperature data on the moon, you will most likely get confused. According to the data NASA, temperatures at the Moon's equator range from very low (-173 degrees Celsius at night) to very high (127 degrees Celsius during the day). In some deep craters near the poles of the Moon, the temperature is always around -240 degrees Celsius.

During a lunar eclipse, when the moon is moving towards the earth's shadow, in just 90 minutes, the surface temperature can drop by 300 degrees Celsius.

10. The moon has its own time zones

It is quite possible to tell the time on the moon. In fact, in 1970 the company Helbros Watches(Helbros Watches) requested Kenneth L. Franklin ( Kenneth L. Franklin ) , who for many years was the chief astronomer at New York Hayden Planetarium create watches for astronauts who set foot on the lunar surface... This watch measured time in the so-called " Lunations"is the time it takes for the Moon to orbit the Earth. Each Lunation corresponds to 29.530589 days on Earth.

For the moon, Franklin developed a system called lunar time... He imagined local lunar time zones according to the standard time zones on Earth, but based on meridians, 12 degrees wide. They will be called plainly " 36 degrees Eastern Standard Time"etc., but it is possible that other more memorable names will be adapted, such as" Copernicus time", or " Western calm time".

Once upon a time there was a woman named Viovio, and she had a son named Ganumi. When he was still a baby, his mother became pregnant again. This spoiled her milk and Ganumi stopped sucking. He lay hungry and dirty, his mother did not wash him and only sometimes gave him a little sago.

Shortly before giving birth, a corner was drawn for her in the house, and there she gave birth. She did not throw away the mat with blood stains, and one day, when everyone went to work in the gardens, she put Ganumi on it and also left. Ganumi immediately jumped to his feet and shouted:

Oh, what's that red here?

And then Ganumi became a parrot from a boy. His body was covered with feathers, a beak appeared, and he turned red all over - like blood stains on a mat. The parrot flew to the roof of the hut, and then flew to where Viovio was making sago, and sat on a nearby sago palm tree. The woman thought: "I have never seen such a bird, how beautiful it is!" And the bird cried out in the language of red parrots:

Viovio, do you recognize me?

The woman threw some sago to the bird and said:

Why is this bird calling my name? The parrot flew to another tree, threw off its feathers, became a boy again and said:

Don't you recognize me? But you gave birth to me - you, not another woman. Now I'm leaving you. Trees will become my home, I will eat coconuts, and now my name will be red cockatoo - pyro.

Don't say that, - said the mother, - go downstairs, come back home. ...

It's late now, I can't go down, my house will be in the trees. When I was with you, you did not care about me, but now I will eat bananas and coconuts and laugh at people.

The red parrot flew away and sat on a sago palm tree that grew above the stream. Soon the girls came to fetch water, and one of them, whose name was Gebaye, saw the reflection of a parrot and thought that the bird was there in the water. She jumped into the stream to catch her, but the bird was not there. :

Why did you get into the water? - another girl said to her. - There is a bird, upstairs, on a tree.

The parrot flew to the girls, fluttered over them, and they caught him. Gebaye joked:

I will take him home and hide him there, it will be our husband. She put the parrot in the basket, and when she returned home, she hung the basket near the place where she slept. The girls lay down and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Ganumi became human and woke Gebaye.

Who is this? - she exclaimed.

It's me, pyro. You caught me and put me in a basket.

Gebaye said to herself: "I thought it was a parrot, but this, it turns out, is a man!" The young man went to bed with her, and in the morning he returned back to the basket. The next night, he again came to sleep with her, and Gebaye became pregnant. Soon other girls began to say: "Look at Gebae, her nipples darkened - she's probably pregnant." Everyone found out about this, and some women began to scold her, and the rest were silent. Her father and mother also learned that Gebae would have a child. They got very angry, gathered their fellow villagers and went with them to kill Ganumi.

The red cockatoo flew to the sago palm, threw off its feathers and laid them in the hollow of a palm leaf. People cut down the palm tree on which he was hiding with axes, but Ganumi managed to jump to another, and when they began to chop it down, then to the third, and from it to the fourth. He saw his mother from above in the crowd and shouted:

Viovio, where can I hide? They are about to kill me. Where is my staircase, mother?

The mother untied the rope that held her skirt and threw the end to Ganumi, but the rope was too short, and then she took out Ganumi's umbilical cord, which she had saved. Ganumi shouted:

They called me pyro, mother, and now they will call me differently! I will always be called Ganumi when I shine brightly. Throw me the end of the umbilical cord, mother!

The mother firmly grasped the end of the rope with the umbilical cord tied in her hand and threw another one to him - she wanted to pull her son from the tree and hide in her basket. Ganumi grabbed the end of the umbilical cord, and Viovio pulled it with all her might. But Ganumi held on tightly to the tree, and from Viovio's jerk, it first bent towards her, and then straightened up again - with such force that it threw Ganumi's mother into the sky, and after her, Ganumi himself, holding on to the end of the umbilical cord. There Viovio caught him and put him in her basket, and in it she carries him in heaven to this day.

On the leaves and trunks of sago palms, there is a white coating, similar to flour. Ganumi, when he jumped from palm to palm, smeared his face in it, and since then it is white. When Ganumi looks a little out of his mother's basket, people see a young moon; then he pokes his face out more and more. Sometimes the mother hides the basket behind her back, and then the moon is not visible at all. It is impossible to see the mother, only her fingers are sometimes visible in front of Ganumi's face - these are the spots that we see on the moon.

There is another story about why Ganumi's face is white. They say that once, when he was still young, his mother fried sago, and he cried and asked to be given him. Angry, she threw a handful at him, the sago covered Ganumi's face, and where the burnt was hit, now there are dark spots.

Part of the sago that had stuck to his face, Ganumi threw off, and it fell on the palm trees and even on the ground - crumbs of this sago are still found, and if the young man eats such a crumb, all the girls will love him. For this, the crumb is sometimes placed under the boy's arm, or rubbed with the shell that the young man wears around his neck, or smeared with it a long feather that adorns his head - it sways back and forth and lures the girls. The "crumble moon" is also sometimes smeared if they want to kill the fat dugong, the rope to which the harpoon is tied, and they also give one of the dogs if the hunter wants to drive the fat wild pig.

Everyone knows how Ganumi appeared, and sometimes lovers, having met, repeat his conversation with Gebaye. “Who are you?” The girl asks. "I am pyro," the young man replies, "I am Ganumi."

- Oh, what is it here, so red?

- Viovio, do you recognize me?

The woman threw some sago to the bird and said:

- Why is this bird calling my name? The parrot flew to another tree, dropped its feathers,

became a boy again and said:

- You didn't recognize me? But you gave birth to me - you, not another woman. Now I'm leaving you. Trees will become my home, I will eat coconuts, and now my name will be red cockatoo - pyro.

“Don't say that,” said the mother. “Go downstairs, return home.

- Now it's too late, I can't go down, my house will be in the trees. When I was with you, you did not care about me, but now I will eat bananas and coconuts and laugh at people.

- Why did you get into the water? - another girl said to her. - There is a bird, upstairs, on a tree.

The parrot flew to the girls, fluttered over them, and they caught him. Gebaye joked:

- I'll take him home and hide him there, it will be our husband. She put the parrot in the basket, and when she returned

home, hung the basket near the place where she slept. The girls lay down and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Ganumi became human and woke Gebaye.

- Who is this? - she exclaimed.

- It's me, pyro. You caught me and put me in a basket.

- Viovio, where can I hide? They are about to kill me. Where is my staircase, mother?

The mother untied the rope that held her skirt and threw the end to Ganumi, but the rope was too short, and then she took out Ganumi's umbilical cord, which she had saved. Ganumi shouted:

- They called me pyro, mother, and now they will call me differently! I will always be called Ganumi when I shine brightly. Throw me the end of the umbilical cord, mother!

Everyone knows how Ganumi appeared, and sometimes lovers, having met, repeat his conversation with Gebaye. "Who are you?" The girl asks. "I am pyro," the young man replies, "I am Ganumi."

The dimensions of the seas are from 200 to 1100 km in diameter. The seas are lowlands (for example, the Sea of Rains is located 3 km below the surrounding terrain) with a flat bottom, with the presence of folds and peaks of small mountain peaks, filled with hardened lava. The surface of the seas is covered with dark matter - basalt-type lava, once erupted from the bowels of the moon. At the bottom of the Grimaldi Crater at the edge of the Ocean of Storms, ground-based research methods have discovered ilmenites - rocks containing oxygen. There are few craters in the seas. The largest lowland is called the Ocean of Storms. Its length is 2000 km. The marginal zones of the seas, which resemble bays, as well as dark depressions in the form of lakes, have been given names corresponding to their type. Ring-shaped mountain ranges are located around the seas. The Sea of Rains is surrounded by the Alps, the Caucasus, the Apennines, the Carpathians, and the Jura. The Sea of Nectar - the Altai and Pyrenees mountains. The East Sea is surrounded by the Cordilleras and the Roca Mountains. In the seas, sometimes there are ledges - faults; the most famous ledge, the Straight Wall, is located in the Sea of Clouds.

On the far side of the Moon there are few seas and they are small in size. There is speculation that the marine formations on the Moon were formed as a result of only a few collisions. The craters formed as a result of the impacts filled with lava and gave rise to mascons. Lava rocks are heavier than continental rocks, which could cause an asymmetry in the distribution of the lunar mass, as a result of which the Earth's gravity permanently fixed the "sea" hemisphere of the Moon in the direction of our planet. The far side of the Moon is characterized by "pools" - very large ring structures, more than 300 km in diameter. The Eastern Sea, the Moscow Sea and others have two annular shafts - external and internal, in a ratio of diameters of 2/1. Sometimes the inner rings are badly damaged.

Some facts about the lunar seas

Names of seas, bays, lakes and marshes on the visible side of the moon

Russian name - Latin name

Names of the seas on the far side of the moon

Russian name - Latin name

moon
Physical peculiarities	Internal structure Gravity Topography Magnetic field Atmosphere
Orbit	Orbit Phases New Moon Full Moon Solar Eclipse Lunar Eclipse Tide
Lunar surface	Selenography Visible side Reverse side Seas Impact crater Basin South Pole - Aitken Shackleton Ice Peak of eternal light Space weather Short lunar events
Selenology	Geology (chronology) Mineralogy Giant collision theory KREEP ALSEP Laser ranging of the Moon Late heavy bombardment Lunar rocks Regolith Meteorites
Study	Exploration Project Apollo Colonization Lunar Conspiracy
Other	Calendar Month Crescent Moon Mythology Art Illusion Moon Origins
See also: Solar system Satellites of planets ((Moon Exploration AMC))

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See what "Lunar seas" are in other dictionaries:

The name for large, dark, nearly flat areas of the Moon's surface below its mean. Lunar seas occupy 17% of the Moon's surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, the age of which is 3 4.5 billion years ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Plain spaces on the surface of the Moon (See the Moon), which look like extended dark spots ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Name large dark, almost flat areas of the lunar surface located below its cf. level. L. m. Occupy 17% of the surface of the moon; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, up to 3–4.5 billion years old ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

Black Sea The sea is a part of the World Ocean, separated by land or elevations of the underwater relief. Some seas are part of another sea (for example, the Aegean Sea is part of the Mediterranean). The term is also used to refer to very large ... ... Wikipedia

View of the Moon in a Lunar Eclipse Schematic of a Lunar Eclipse Lunar Eclipse is an eclipse that occurs when the Moon enters the cone of the shadow cast by the Earth. The diameter of the Earth's shadow spot at a distance of 363,000 km (the minimum distance of the Moon from the Earth) ... ... Wikipedia

moon obelisks- 8 objects of regular conical shape, reminiscent of the famous Cleopatra's Needle in New York (USA), located on a flat area of the lunar Sea of Tranquility on an area of 165 x 225 meters. E. Moon obeliskes D. Mondobelisken ... Explanatory ufological dictionary with equivalents in English and German