The MOON

MOON

• Natural or artificial bodies that revolve

around larger bodies such as planets are
called satellites.
• the moons forms about 4.5 billion years
ago.
• It is the 5th largest natural satellite in the
solar system
 Luna: The Moon of Earth
The Surface of the Moon
The surfaces of bodies that have no
atmospheres and no erosion preserve a record
 it composed of inner and outer core “ Iron”
 Mantle and crust( magnesium, oxygen,
silicon)
 it covered of dust and rocky debris'
 it covered of ocean and magma
• Lunar Origins
the composition of the moon was similar
to that of Earth’s mantle
Moonlight

• the moon shines because it reflects light from

the sun
• The total amount of sunlight that the moon
gets always remains the same
• Half of the moon is always in sunlight, just as
half of Earth is always in sunlight. But the
moon’s period of rotation is the same as its
period of revolution.
Phases of the Moon
• Within a month, the moon’s Earthward face
changes from a fully lit circle to a thin crescent
and then back to a circle
• As the moon revolves around Earth, the
amount of sunlight on the side of the moon
that faces Earth changes
• . When the moon is waxing, the sunlit fraction
that we can see from Earth is getting larger.
When the moon is waning, the sunlit fraction
is getting smaller.
 The moon statistics
Period of rotation 27 days, 7.7 hours
Period of revolution 27 days, 7.7 hours
Diameter 3,476km
Surface temperature -170c to 130c
Surface gravity 17% of Earth`s
Phases of the Moon
ECLIPSE
When the shadow of one celestial body falls on
another, an eclipse occurs.
• A solar eclipse happens when the moon
comes between Earth and the sun and the
shadow of the moon falls on part of Earth.
• A lunar eclipse happens when Earth comes
between the sun and the moon and the
shadow of Earth falls on the moon.
 Solar Eclipse
• an annular eclipse, the moon is farther from
Earth.
• The disk of the moon does not completely
cover the disk of the sun. A thin ring of the
sun shows around the moon’s outer edge.
• When the moon is closer to Earth, the moon
appears to be the same size as the sun. During
a total solar eclipse, the disk of the moon
completely covers the disk of the sun
 Lunar Eclipse

• Earth’s atmosphere bends some of the

sunlight into Earth’s shadow
• When sunlight hits the particles in the
atmosphere, blue light is filtered out.
 The Moon’s Tilted Orbit
• The moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted—
by about 5°—relative to the orbit of
Earth around the sun. This degree of tilt
is enough to place the moon out of
Earth’s shadow for most full moons. It
also places Earth out of the moon’s
shadow for most new moons
 The Moons of Other Planets
The Moons of Mars
-Phobos and Deimos
-are small, oddly shaped satellites
-very dark
-surface materials are much like those of
some asteroids—large, rocky bodies in space
-One possibility is that these two moons
are asteroids that were caught by Mars’s gravity
The Moons of Jupiter
60 moons. The four
largest moons—Ganymede,
Callisto, Io, and Europa—were
discovered in 1610 by Galileo.
They are known as the
Galilean satellites. The largest
moon, Ganymede, is even
larger than the planet
Mercury!
The Moons of Saturn
47 moons
Most of these moons are small bodies that are
made mostly of frozen water but contain some
rocky material. At 5,150 km in diameter

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon. Complex

chemicals that occur in small quantities
in Titan’s atmosphere are thought to
account for Titan’s orange color as seen
from space
• The Moons of Uranus
-27 moons, most of which are small. These
moons have been discovered by using
spacecraft and orbiting observatories, such as
the Hubble Space Telescope. Like the moons of
Saturn, Uranus’s largest moons are made of ice
and rock and are heavily cratered.
The Moons of Neptune

-13 known moons

-The largest moon of Neptune is named Triton.
-revolves around Neptune in a retrograde
orbit
-Triton has a very thin atmosphere made
mostly of nitrogen gas. Triton’s surface is mostly
frozen nitrogen and methane
The Moon of Pluto

Charon, Pluto’s moon, has a period of revolution

that is the same as Pluto’s period of rotation—
about 6.4 days.