Interesting Moon facts

July 21, 2009 | In: Space Facts

It was not discovered until 1665 that other planets had natural satellites as well, at which point “moon” started to be dropped and instead referred to as “The Moon” .

Although the moon looks white in the sky, its surface is actually about as bright as an asphalt road! The large, flat maria (plains of ancient lava) are even darker, almost as dark as charcoal.
Why does the moon appear white? The dark of space is so deep, and the light of the sun is so bright, that the dark moon’s surface still reflects a lot of light. If the moon were actually white, it would reflect a whole lot more.

The Moon is 32.2 billion years old in dog years.

In a survey conducted in 1988, 13% of those surveyed believed that the moon is made of cheese.

The pull of gravity on the Moon is only 17% the pull of gravity on the Earth.

The temperature on moon ranges from -171 deg C to 111 deg C.

The Soviet spacecraft ‘Luna 2′ was the first space probe to land on the moon on 13th September 1959 .

The far side of the moon (the side we never see) is heavily pockmarked with craters.

27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

The Moon is moving away from The Earth at a rate of about 1.6 inches per year.

The Moon does not have any water on its surface.

The first landing was on July 20, 1969 (Do you remember where you were?); the last was in December 1972.

Ganymede, one of the Jupiter’s moons, is the largest moon in the Solar System — almost 3 1/2 times as large as Earth’s moon! Ganymede is large enough that if it orbited the sun instead of Jupiter, it could be classified as a planet.

Only Ganymede and Saturn’s moon Titan are larger than Mercury, the second smallest planet. However, there are seven moons that are larger than Pluto, the smallest planet — the Earth’s Moon, Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Neptune’s moon Triton.