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Jalen Badu

Mrs. Schinzing

Exploration

30 April 2021

Moon

The moon is a big part of our world and it is more complicated than anyone could ever

know. The moon that looks so close is 238,855 miles away (30 Earths) and is made of minerals

making it a giant rock. It effects the daily life of all humans and animals and contributes to the

life of these things too. The moon is studied all around the world from the effects it has on the

earth to the surface and inside, even Lunar Eclipses help one understand the orbiting rock called

the moon.

The moon contributes to many things on earth including all life as humans know it. It

helps with the daily calendar of animals and humans signaling when to go to sleep (Westlake

35). Animals, like owls receive help from this because they are nocturnal and sleep during the

day. Human’s body fluids are affected by the moon too, because of the gravitational pull of the

moon. It stabilizes human’s body fluids even though the moons gravitational pull is only one

sixth of the Earth’s. The moon also effects the tides, like during a full and new moon the tides

are the highest (Side). The earth and moon do not always align causing different views of the

moon. Some examples of this are the crescent and half-moons.

The moon influences the rise and fall of Earth’s tides. When the ocean’s water faces the

moon, the pull is stronger this causes the tides to rise. When the oceans waters face away from

the moon the pull is weaker causing the tides to fall. This is called tidal force which in Dan

Klaser’s words “is the force that causes Earth and its water to gravitate to the side the moon is

facing (Klaser).” The pull of the moon on Earth’s rotation, an effect known a tidal braking,
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occurs as well. This affect increases the length of a day by two point three milliseconds every

century. Even rain can be caused by the moon. The moon pulls water from the ocean to go up

into the atmosphere.

People from different cultures, and religions throughout time have based their lives on

the moon. Chinese celebrate the lunar festival, a festival where people release lanterns, control

giant balloons, and dance (Richard 61). The moon also effects religions like Hinduism, which

worships the moon god. The moon was also used by the Egyptians. The Egyptians based their

days on the lunar and solar cycle. In mythology the moon is associated with many gods and

goddess such as Artemis or Diana. Today we base so much on the moon like our sleep schedule

and when we wake up.

The moon has multiple effects on humans too. Humans realized that the moon is visible

every night on earth because of that humans decide to try and get a closer look. They used things

like telescopes and even invented robots designed to land directly on the moon. On July 20th,

1969, a man named Neil Armstrong successfully went to the moon in a spacecraft named Apollo

Eleven (Westlake 4). Alongside Buzz Aldrin, the second man to land on the moon and Michael

Collins, the man who traveled with Neil Armstrong they opened a new era of space exploration.

Thanks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA for short, astrologists

have been able to unveil the secrets of space and the moon. NASA has built spacecrafts that have

sent 339 people to space to see the surface and inside of the moon.

The moon is two hundred and forty thousand miles away from earth and is said to be

drifting away but this is argued between different astrologists. The moon also supplies a lot of

light for the Earth. Even though people might believe that the light side and dark side of the

moon both show light that is false. Only one side of the moon shows light at a time. The sides

change depending on the position of the sun. When the moon shines on a side of the moon it
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reflects that light onto Earth (Klaser).

The surface and inside of the moon are unbelievable, there are so many components and

all this just shows the greatness of the God we worship. The moon has no atmosphere, but it does

have an exosphere. The exosphere is made of Neon, Helium, and Argon (Richard 42). The

exosphere is ten trillion times less dense the earth’s atmosphere. There are two main reasons why

humans and animals can’t breathe on the moon. The first reason is that the air on the moon is full

of dust and that dust is full of very sharp particles. These particles, when inhaled can kill you.

The second reason is that the moon has no oxygen. If there is no oxygen, then humans can’t

breathe on the moon. Even though we cannot breathe on the moon NASA was able to collect

rocks by using a machine called a rover. The rover transported those rocks to Earth. NASA

studied the minerals deducting that the minerals smell like gunpowder.

There is water on the moon, but it is frozen and at the bottom of craters which the moon

is full of. There are also H2O particles in the air all over the moon even though the moon has a

very thin atmosphere (Klaser). The biggest crater on the moon, the South Pole-Aitken basin

stretches 1,550 miles wide (about half the width of the United States). It is 8 miles deep and from

what astrologist can tell, is the oldest crater on the moon. The moon gets its craters from meteors

and anything else that crashes into the moon while it is orbiting the earth. It takes 27 days (about

4 weeks) for the moon to fully orbit around the earth. The moon is one thousand seventy-nine

miles in diameter which is one fourth of Earth’s diameter.

The moon has many dead volcanos showing that they were once active, due to the left-

over magma. The moon is two inches of dust. Scientists speculate that, because of this reason,

the moon surface is probably soft. However, there is still a hard layer of rock under the dust that

covers the moon (Westlake 73). God has spoken the moon into existence and that is the coolest
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and best fact of them all. Thanks to the Lord and His amazing power the moon has been made so

complex.

The moon has two cores, an inner core and an outer core. The cores are made mostly of

iron and nickel. The inner core has a solid mass of about 480 km in diameter (about the length

of New York State). Around the inner core is the outer core. It is also made of hot iron and

nickel. There is no twilight on the moon so the moon changes from night to day instantly unlike

the Earth. The earth gradually changes from day to night over a few hours. The sky on the moon

is pitch black unlike the earth. The earth’s atmosphere makes the sky look blue. The moon has

no atmosphere and no twilight colors. Even with the sun shining the moons sky is pitch black

(Side). The moon passes through a shadow that has many parts. The penumbra, one of the parts,

is the partial shadow that the moon passes through. When the moon passes through this shadow

it gets very dark. The sky of the moon and the surface of the moon are hugely different because

even though the sky of the moon changes often the surface of the moon is completely dark

without any light.

The moon is made of regolith unconsolidated, rocky, material covering bedrock and it

holds powdery dust made of broken rock. Regolith is made from aftermath of meteors that hit the

moon. The moon was made when God spoke it into existence. The time on the moon is vastly

different than on the earth because the moon orbits the earth at an average speed of 1.28 light-

seconds. The moon is not a sphere it is an oval, and it has no moons. Many quakes called moon

quakes happen on the moon due to meteors hitting it. These moon quakes can cause craters and

violent shaking on the moon (Westlake 27).

Lunar eclipses happen when the Earth’s shadow blocks the moon from reflecting the

sun’s light. The moon passes through the shadow of the Earth and through the penumbra the

partial shadow and then the middle of the shadow (Klaser). After it passes through the middle of
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the shadow it exits the shadow and reflects the light of the sun again. This does not happen every

time because the moon does not perfectly align with the earth. The sun plays a big part of a lunar

eclipse to as the moon reflects the light of the sun (Richard 14).

The sun’s light always shining on half of the moon because half of the moon is always

facing the sun. This is the reason the moon looks like it is making its own light. The moon

reflects about the same amount as coal and is four hundred thousand times less bright than the

sun (Karen). The moon does not reflect just the sun’s light though because if it did then it would

not be blue or orange. The moon become blue and orange because the particles from Earth’s

atmosphere effects the moon (Richard 18). Many people think that lunar eclipses and solar

eclipses are similar, but they are the opposite.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon comes in front of the sun unlike a lunar eclipse

that requires the moon to be on the opposite side of the sun (Bright). The moon cast a shadow

over Earth because it is over the sun blocking the light coming from sun. A solar eclipse occurs

more often than a lunar eclipse meaning the moon intersects the Earth and the sun more than the

Earth intersecting the moon and sun (Westlake pg.35). A Lunar eclipse is perfectly safe to watch.

Solar eclipse is different from the lunar because it can be dangerous for people. A solar eclipse

is dangerous to look at and can do damage to the naked eye while look at the sun during the

eclipse. The moon is always studied by humans and they even have machines on it right now.

Thanks to the many NASA studies about the moon, so much more has been discovered.

The Luna was the first spacecraft sent to the moon. Many spacecrafts and rover have been sent

since. It is because of the information gathered from these spacecrafts that scientist have learned

the moon is not on sphere, but it is actually an oval. The moon has no other moons that surround

it unlike what many false websites might say. They believe this due to fake satellite readings and

meteors mistaken as moons. The moon also has no alien life on it, and due to the lack of oxygen
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it cannot be colonized. Scientists are working and studying to find a way for humans to be able

to live on the moon permanently (John R.). Due to the studies on the moon humans were able to

go further than before and because of that humans have been able to study many planets and

even learn about thing that are not in the milky way galaxy.

It is amazing that humans have been able to find out so many things about the moon’s

effect on Earth, the moon’s complicated surface and inside, and lunar eclipses. The moon is

smaller than a planet but bigger than a meteor. Scientist and astrologers are still studying and

continuing to study it to this day. Now that the technology is available NASA has sent many

space rovers to the moon and many other planets (Klaser). Studies on the moon are still

happening and no one knows what else humans will find once discovery about the moon

increases. When and what will the moon hold in the near future to come, no one knows it only

depends on how technology improves in the years to come.

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Works Cited

Hannah Westlake, Journey to the moon, Sona Books, 2019, UK.

Klaser, Don. Personal Interview 7 March 2021.

Lee, Karen. “Apollo 11 moon Landing-Topics on Newspapers.com” Apollo 11 Moon Landing,

20 March. 2020, www.newspapers.com/topics/cold-war/apollo-11-moon-landing/.

Michigan Science Center. John R. Street Detroit, MI 48202 9 March 2021.

“Moon 101.”, 26 July 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AviDjR9mmo. Accessed 8

February. 2021.

Side, Bright. “45 Amazing Moon Facts You know nothing about.” YouTube, YouTube, 4

August. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeVxMZjigpc.

Stephenson, F. Richard, Houtgast, Jaerd and Zirker, Jack B. “Eclipse.” Encyclopedia Britannica,

28 January. 2021, http://www.Britannica.com/science/eclipse. Accessed 25 February

2021.