Earth’s Moon Presentation by Clair Kessler

What Is The Moon? Earth’s only natural satellite The closest natural thing to Earth in space A rocky, airless world

Earth’s Only Natural Satellite Orbits Earth –The moon travels at 2,288 miles per hour That’s about 38 times faster than your car goes on the freeway –It takes 27.3 days for the moon to travel around Earth one time, which is 1,423,000 miles.

Earth is the only planet which has only one moon The five other planets in our solar system have their own moons Jupiter has 28 moons

The Moon is the Closest Natural Thing to Earth in Space The Moon is at an average distance of 238,897 miles away from Earth –That’s about 30 Earths lined up “Average” because the Moon does not orbit Earth in a perfect circle, but instead in an oval shape It would take 16 days to get to the moon in a fast passenger jet.

How The Moon Stays in the Sky The Moon stays in orbit around Earth because it is at the right distance from Earth and going at the right speed around Earth to stay in Earth’s gravitational field and not get pulled in –If the moon were going faster it would escape Earth’s gravity and fly off into space –If it were going slower, gravity would pull it down to Earth

How We Think The Moon Was Formed About four and a half billion years ago, an object about half Earth’s size smashed into Earth. Material from both the object and Earth were thrown into orbit around Earth. This material eventually gathered together to form the Moon. –At first the Moon was closer to Earth than it is now. Over time, it gradually moved farther away. –The Moon is still moving away from Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters a year.

What do we see when we look at the moon from earth? The moon is not colorful, it is shades of gray The moon has spots and lines on it, some are dark and some are light The moon seems to shine

Let’s find out why the moon looks the way it does… The first thing we have to know is that the moon has no atmosphere –The Moon has no air because its gravity is too weak to hold an atmosphere. –This means, most gases around the moon go floating off into space. –Air is a mixture of gases including oxygen.

Air is needed for plants and animals to survive, including humans. –When astronauts go to the moon they have to bring air with them so they can breath. Sound travels through atmosphere, so there is no sound on the moon. Having no atmosphere also means that the moon isn’t protected from flying objects in space.

Meteors, Asteroids and Comets Meteors are Shooting stars Sand to boulder sized particles of debris in the solar system Meteors often collide with the unshielded moon creating craters

Craters The moon is covered in craters Left over from meteors and asteroids hitting the moon The size, speed, and angle of the falling object determine the size and shape of the resulting crater

The Moon Is Gray In the past the Moon had a lot of volcanic activity. Most of the rocks on the Moon came from the inside of the Moon during volcanic eruptions. The moon is gray because it is covered in volcanic rocks, which are naturally gray in color.

Dark Gray Basins The dark grey, or black parts of the moon are the insides of craters, called basins –Long ago the craters were filled in with lava from a volcanic eruption –The lava has hardened and turned to dark gray rock The darker color can also be shadows on the moon

Does The Moon Shine? The moon looks very bright to us on Earth It does not make its own light The shine is reflection from the sun’s rays We don’t always see the full moon

Activity: Getting Started Get into groups (class/7) All groups should arrange themselves in a circle around the light When you get situated have one person from the group raise their hand

Activity Pick one student in each group to start the activity That student holds their moon by the stick with the white part facing them. You’re head is Earth Slowly rotate the moon around Earth There is a light in the center of the class (the sun) Note the light and shadows on the moon Find at what part of rotation, relative to the new moon (all shadow), your paper moon is Let each group member have a turn doing this.

When you’re done There are eight circles one the board, bring your groups moon up and place it over the circle that is in your moon’s correct order of phases.

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