Moon #1 Flashcards
How did the moon form?
Recent evidence indicates it formed when a huge collision tore a chunk of earth away.
A giant impact knocked off the raw ingredients for the moon off the primitive molten earth and into orbit. (About 95 million years after the formation of the solar system)
How the moon evolved?
The moon likely started as a giant ball of magma formed from the remains of an impact on earth (about 4.5 billion years ago) after the hot material collected into a sphere , the magma began to cool forming a crust on the surface of the moon with the magma underneath.
Why is the moon’s crust broken and jumbled ?
Due to all the large impacts it has received
What are tides?
Differences in the moon’s pull on different parts of Earth
What are high tides and low tides?
High tides:when water bulges upward
Low tides: when water drops down
What are spring tides and neap tides? (Complete)
Spring tides: greatest tidal range (highest high tide and lowest low tide)
Neap tides: smallest tidal range ( lowest hight tides and highest low tides)
Both occur in a regular pattern
Eclipses:
When the sun or moon is blocked out by another object
Lunar eclipses:
Moon passes through the earth’s shadow
Only during full moon
Solar eclipses
Moon is directly between the sun and earth and the moon’s shadow falls on the earth ( only during new moon)
Why does the moon always shows us the same face?
Because it takes 27.3 days both to rotate on its axis and to orbit earth. We see either the full moon, half moon or no moon ( new moon) because the moon reflects sunlight. How much of it we see depends on the moon’s position in relation to earth and the sun.
Other way: the moon always presents the same face to the earth because it completes one orbit in about the same spam of time it takes to complete a rotation
Why does the moon have faces?
Because sunlight reflects the moon’s surface as it moves around the earth. The sun always shines on half of the moon, but we cannot always see all the half that is lit up. The phases are the part of the lit part that we can see
It takes 29.5 days for the moon to complete a cycle of faces?
Yes
Explain the moon’s phases: (new moon and full moon)
New moon: when the moon is positioned between the earth and the sun. The entire illuminated portion of the moon is on the back side (side that we cannot see)
Full moon: earth moon and sun are in approximate alignment but the moon is on the opposite side of the earth (from new moon) so the sunlit part is facing us
The first and third last quarter:
They happen when the moon is at 90 degrees angle with respect to the earth and sun. So we are seeing exactly half of the moon illuminated and half in shadow
Remaining phases:
After the new moon the sunlit portion is increasing but less than half - waxing crescent
After the first quarter the sunlit portion is still increasing but now it is more than half - waxing gibbous
After the full moon, the light continually decreases so the waning gibbous occurs
Following the third quarter is the waning crescent which wanes until the light is completely gone– new moon
