The spots on the moon look alike. Why do we see circles, dark spots, mountains on the surface of the moon? Description of lunar craters

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, 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 up 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 of 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 fell, 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."

In ancient times, people believed that the landscape on the moon is the same as on Earth, dark spots are seas, and light spots are land. However, with the development of science, it was proved that there is no atmosphere on our satellite, which means there is no liquid water on its surface. After a series of numerous studies and observations, scientists were able to draw up detailed maps of the unique lunar landscape. The dark spots turned out to be huge craters that were formed as a result of collisions with celestial bodies and were flooded with liquid lava. They continue to be called the seas, as in ancient times.

Lunar relief

With the help of good binoculars, you can see a lot on the surface of the eternal satellite of the Earth. Dark lowlands (seas) are clearly visible. Craters and mountains are highlighted with raised shadows along the terminator line (the border between the illuminated and shaded areas of the surface). On a full moon, bright streaks can be seen radiating outward from the craters. Probably, this is the soil, thrown in all directions by the impact of a meteorite.

Names of the seas:
Sea of Crises
Sea of Rains
Sea of Clarity
Sea of Tranquility
Al-Battani
Archimedes
Aristotle
Clavius
Copernicus
Eratosthenes
Eudox
Kepler
Langren
Plato
Poseidon
Ptolemy
Theophilus

Craters occupy up to 40% of the entire visible lunar surface. Our satellite is always turned to the Earth by the same side, on which most of the craters are located. Only very recently, with the development of technology, has man managed to look at the far side of the moon. There, in addition to the usual relief, there is a huge depression 12 km deep and 2250 km wide, the largest in the entire solar system.

The closest celestial body to the Earth

The moon is the closest large celestial body to us. The distance to it is approximately 384 467 km. The appearance of the moon changes in accordance with phases that repeat at strictly defined intervals. People in ancient times paid attention to this, so one of the first calendars that they began to use in everyday life was the lunar one.

Particles of light from the Moon reach the Earth in 1.25 seconds. But it is the light that moves the fastest in the universe. And people, even on a space rocket, need to get to the moon for a whole week. So our eternal companion is not so close. Suffice it to say that the length of the earth's equator is 10 times less than this distance.

The lunar radius is 1737 km. This is only 1.5 times less than that of Mercury, and 4 times less than that of the Earth. The mass of the only satellite of the Earth is 80 times less than the mass of our planet, so all bodies on its surface are attracted 6 times weaker. If the astronaut who was there, even in a spacesuit, jumped, he would fly several tens of meters. Its weight with all the equipment would have been no more than 20 kg.

During the day, the surface of the Moon illuminated by the Sun heats up to 130 ºС, and the "lunar day" lasts almost half a month. At night, the surface temperature on our satellite decreases to minus 160-170 ºС. Thus, there is no need to talk about any life on the moon.

Analysis of lunar soil samples showed that the surface of the Moon, like the surface of the Earth, was formed as a result of solidification of basalt melt. Therefore, the lunar seas are most likely frozen lakes of volcanic lava, and there has never been water in them.

The lunar seas are the largest features of the Earth's satellite surface. Solidified lava is characterized by a darker color than the rest of its surface. The seas are lowlands, the largest of which is called the Ocean of Storms. There are also bays, lakes and swamps. On the far side of the Moon there are also seas and lakes, but they are much smaller and they are small in size.

The moon, a satellite of the Earth and the nearest celestial object (384,400 km) are visible in the night sky. Ancient cultures revered the moon. She was represented as gods and goddesses in various mythologies - the ancient Greeks called the Moon "Artemis" and "Selene", and the Romans called her "Luna".

When the first astronomers looked at the moon, they saw dark spots that they believed were seas ( maria) and light areas, which they considered to be ground ( terrae). From the point of view of Aristotle, which was the generally accepted theory at the time, the moon was an ideal sphere and the earth was the center of the universe. When Galileo Galilei looked at the moon through a telescope, he saw a different picture of the moon - a rugged relief of mountains and craters. He saw how her appearance changed over the course of the month, and how the mountains cast shadows, which allowed him to calculate their heights. Galileo concluded that the Moon was similar to Earth in that it had mountains, valleys, and plains. His observations ultimately contributed to rejection of Aristotle's idea of a geocentric model of the universe.

Because the Moon is so close to the Earth in relation to other celestial objects, people have explored its surface and made repeated landings. In the 1960s, the United States and the USSR were engaged in a massive "space race" to land a man on the moon. Both countries sent unmanned probes into orbit of the moon, photographed it, and landed on the surface.

On July 20, 1969, the participants of the Apollo 11 project, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, became the first person to set foot on the moon. During six lunar missions from 1969 to 1972, 12 American astronauts explored the lunar surface. They made observations, received photographs and brought back 382 kilograms of lunar soil samples.

The USSR went the other way, and on November 17, 1970, the world's first rover was delivered to the lunar surface. "Lunokhod-1"(Apparatus 8EL No. 203), which conducted research for 11 lunar days (10.5 Earth months), controlled from the Earth. "Lunokhod-1" and "Lunokhod-2", launched in 1973, were the forerunners of the modern Mars rover Curiosity, which successfully explores the surface of Mars.

What have we learned about the Moon from these historical travels?

What's on the surface of the moon?

As we noted, the first thing you'll notice when you look at the surface of the Moon is the dark and light areas. The dark areas are called seas. There are several known seas.

2. Mare Imbrium(Sea of Rains): the largest sea (1100 kilometers in diameter), the landing site of "Lunokhod 1"

6. Oceanus Procellarum(Ocean of Storms)

The seas cover only 15 percent of the moon's surface.

The rest of the lunar surface is composed of light mountains - heavily crater-riddled regions. The Apollo 11 crew noted that mountains are typically 2.5 to 3 km above the average surface elevation of the lunar relief, while the seas are low-lying plains, about 1.2 to 1.8 km below average. These results were confirmed in the 1990s when the Clementine orbiter captured high-quality images of the lunar surface.

The moon is full craters, which are formed when meteors hit its surface. They may have central peaks and terrace walls... A central peak forms on impact, like a splash on the surface of water when a small object hits it. Lunar material from a meteor impact can also be ejected from the crater, forming rays emanating from it. Craters come in a variety of sizes, and the mountains are more densely cratered than the seas. The lighter shade of the mountains is explained by the fact that as a result of the formation of craters on the surface of the Moon, fresh rock is thrown out from its depths, which is exposed to solar radiation for a shorter time than the soil on the rest of the surface. There is another type of crater, the bottom of which looks like many concentric rings. This structure is created by a tremendous force of impact, which raises the surface of the moon in waves.

In addition to craters, geologists spotted cones slag volcanoes and old lava flows, which indicate that the moon was volcanically active at some point in its existence.

The moon has no true soil because it has nothing living. The lunar "soil" is called regolith... The astronauts noted that the regolith contained fine powder of rock debris and volcanic glass particles mixed with large stones.

Having studied the rocks brought from the lunar surface, geologists found the following characteristics:

1. The seas consist mainly of basalt, igneous rock formed from solidified lava.

2. Mountainous areas include mainly igneous rocks anorthosite and breccia.

3. If we compare the relative age of rocks, the mountainous regions are much older than the seas (4 - 4.3 billion years versus 3.1 - 3.8 billion years).

4. Lunar rocks have very little water and volatile compounds in them and are similar to those found in the Earth's mantle.

5. Oxygen isotopes in lunar and terrestrial rocks are similar, indicating that the Moon and Earth formed at about the same distance from the Sun.

6. The density of the Moon (3.3 g / cm 3) is less than on Earth (5.5 g / cm 3), indicating that the Moon does not have a significant iron core inside the planet.

The following data were also obtained:

1. Seismometers did not detect any "moonquakes" or other signs of tectonic plate movements (movements in the lunar crust)

2. Magnetometers of orbiting spacecraft and probes did not detect significant magnetic field around the Moon, which confirmed that the Moon does not have an essential iron core like the Earth.

Moon formation

Before the flight of the Apollo and Lunokhod, there were three hypotheses about how the moon was formed.

Coeducation hypothesis: The moon and earth formed at about the same time, not far from each other.

Capture hypothesis: The Earth and the Moon were formed in different parts of the Galaxy. Earth's gravity captured the fully formed moon as it passed close to Earth's orbit.

Centrifugal separation hypothesis: the young Earth rotated so rapidly on its axis that a drop of molten matter budded off and the Moon was formed.

But, based on the conclusions of the Apollo mission and some scientific reasoning, none of these hypotheses turned out to be convincing enough.

If the Moon really formed together with the Earth, the composition of these two bodies should be approximately the same. However, this is not observed.

Earth's gravity isn't enough to grab a moon-sized space object and keep it in its orbit.

The earth cannot rotate fast enough to lift off a droplet of material the size of the moon.

Scientists began to look for other explanations.

In the mid-1970s, scientists proposed a new idea called Collision hypothesis... According to this hypothesis, about 4.45 billion years ago, when the Earth was still forming, a large object (the size of Mars) hit the Earth at an acute angle, almost tangentially. This small planet was named Theia. The impact threw into space material from the earth's mantle and the upper layer of the crust. The planet Theia that struck the Earth then melted and merged with the bowels of the Earth, and the hot earth's debris grew together in the shape of the Moon. It is assumed that Theia formed in Earth's orbit at one of the Lagrange points in the Earth-Sun system.

The collision hypothesis explains why moon rocks are similar in composition to the Earth's mantle, why the Moon does not have an iron core (because iron from the Earth's core, as well as Theia, remained in the Earth), and why there are no volatile compounds in moon rocks. Computer calculations have shown that this hypothesis is feasible.

There are two more hypotheses: evaporation hypothesis, according to which from the incandescent to the liquid state of the young Earth, the substance evaporated, eventually forming the Moon and many moons hypothesis, claiming that several smaller moons revolved in Earth's orbit, which eventually formed one. But they are even less likely than the first three of these hypotheses.

Moon data:

Distance from Earth: 384,400 km

Diameter: 3476 km, or about 27% of the Earth's diameter

Weight: 7.35 x 1022 kilograms, approximately 1.2% of the mass of the Earth

Gravity: 1.62 m / sec2, or 16.6% of Earth's gravity

Average surface temperature of the planet:

Sunlight = 130 C,

Shadow = -180 C

Atmosphere: Not

Orbital period: 29.5 days

Lunar day: 29.5 Earth days (the Moon is tied to the Earth in such a way that the Earth's gravitational forces pull the Moon around its axis and the same side of the Moon is always turned towards the Earth)

Geological history of the moon

Based on analyzes of lunar rocks, specific gravity and surface characteristics, it was possible to derive the geological history of the Moon:

1. After impact (about 4.45 billion years ago), the newly formed Moon was a huge ocean of magma beneath a solid surface.

2. As the magma cooled, iron and magnesium silicates crystallized and sank to the bottom. Feldspar crystallized and formed anorthosite- the lunar crust.

3. Later, about 4 billion years ago, magma rose and penetrated into the lunar crust, where it chemically formed basalt. The ocean of magma continued to cool, forming lithosphere(similar to the material in the earth's mantle). When the moon is cold asthenosphere(the layer following the lithosphere) shrank, and the lithosphere became very large. These events have led to the model of the Moon, which is very different inwardly from the Earth.

4. About 4.6 - 3.9 billion years ago, the Moon was heavily bombarded by meteors, small comets and other large objects. These impacts have modified the lunar crust and created large, densely cratered highlands on the lunar surface.

5. When the space bombardment stopped, lava flowed from the inside of the moon through volcanoes and cracks in the earth's crust. This lava filled the seas and cooled to become basalt... This period of lunar volcanism lasted approximately 3.7 billion years to 2.5 billion years ago. Since the lunar crust is slightly thinner on the side that faces the Earth, lava was able to more easily fill the sea basins. This explains why there are more seas on the Earth's side of the Moon than on the far side of the Moon.

6. After the volcanic period ended, most of the Moon's internal heat disappeared, so there was no major geological activity. The effects of meteor attacks were the main geological factors on the Moon. These effects were not as intense as in the earlier periods of the Moon's history. Space bombardments tend to decline throughout the solar system. However, the meteoric bombardment, which continues today, produced several large craters such as Tycho and Copernicus and the regolith (soil) that covers the lunar surface.

Every night the moon appears in a different form in the night sky. On some days we can see the entire disk of it, sometimes part of it, and sometimes the Moon is not visible at all. These phase The moons are not random - they change regularly and predictably throughout the month and depend on the angle of incidence of sunlight on its surface.

Since the Moon moves in its 29.5 day orbit around the Earth, its position changes daily. Sometimes it is between the Earth and the Sun, and then solar eclipses occur, and sometimes the Moon is in the shadow of the Earth - then a lunar eclipse occurs.

The lunar orbit is slightly tilted relative to the Earth-Sun plane (by about 3 degrees). Sometimes, the exact alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth will produce a solar eclipse. This only happens when the Moon is in a new phase and its orbit crosses the Sun-Earth plane between the Earth and the Sun. The Moon blocks the Sun and its shadow passes over the Earth.

In the same month as the solar eclipse, during the full moon, there will also be a lunar eclipse. In a lunar eclipse, the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow, causing it to dim. If the moon passes through part of the earth's shadow, a partial lunar eclipse occurs. If the earth's shadow completely covers the lunar disk, a total lunar eclipse occurs.

Ebb and flow

Every day on the globe there are tides and ebb - changes of the seas and oceans. They are caused by the pull of the moon. There are two high tides and two low tides each day, each lasting about six hours.

The gravitational force of the moon attracts water in the oceans, forming tidal bulges in the ocean on the sides of the planet that are opposite the moon. In combination with the forces of rotation of the Earth and the features of the relief of a given area, powerful tidal waves can occur at river estuaries. This feature is used to generate electricity from tidal hydroelectric power plants.

The moon also stabilizes the rotation of the earth. As the Earth rotates on its axis, it wobbles. The gravitational effect of the moon limits these fluctuations to a small extent. If we didn’t have the Moon, the Earth could tilt almost 90 degrees off its axis, like a spinning top when it slows down.

Return of man to the moon

Since 1972, human feet have never set foot on the moon. However, not all is lost for would-be sleepwalkers. In 1994, in lunar orbit, the Clementine probe detected radio reflections from shadowed craters at the Moon's South Pole. Signals confirmed the presence of ice. Later, the Lunar Prospector orbiting probe detected signals of hydrogen from the same area, possibly hydrogen from ice.

Where did the water come from on the moon? It was probably brought to the Moon by comets, asteroids and meteors that have influenced the Moon over its long history. The Apollo didn’t find the water because they didn’t explore this region of the moon. If water is indeed on the moon, it can be used to support the lunar base. Water can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. Oxygen can be used to support life and both gases can be used for rocket fuel. The lunar base can be an intermediate link for further exploration of the solar system (Mars and not only). Plus, because the moon has a lower gravity, it is cheaper and easier to lift rockets from the lunar surface than from the earth's.

Several industrialized countries, including Japan and China, are planning to travel to the Moon and explore the possibility of building a lunar base using materials from the lunar surface. Various plans for sending humans to the moon and setting up possible bases on it will be implemented between 2015 and 2035.

- 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."