Giant Impact Theory: The Formation Of The Moon

There are a few different explanations of how the moon originally formed, but there is a most widely accepted theory. This theory explains that there were debris/other planetary objects floating around in space that happened to hit into the Earth during its late phase of the growing process about 4.5 billion years ago. This knocked out rocky debris into space that then went into the Earths orbit, therefore creating the moon. Some may argue that this is impossible because there is no iron in the moon. This is because when the planetary object hit the Earth, all of Earths iron had completely soaked into the core. So all that was sent out into space into Earths orbit was just rocky leftovers. This theory is called the Giant Impact Theory

Phases of the moon are then created. We see a full moon, new moon, and everything in between. The sun always lights up one half of the moon. A new moon occurs when the moon is positioned directly between the Earth and the Sun. The part of the moon that is illuminated by the Sun is facing away from Earth. So we are only seeing the backside of the moon, which is dark. A full moon is the opposite of a new moon. It is positioned on the opposite side of Earth; therefore we see the illuminated part of the moon since it is facing us. The synodic period, which is the time it takes for the moon to completely orbit the Earth is exactly 29.53 days. We say it takes about a month, but it differs by one or two days. The sidereal period is the orbital period from outside of the solar system. This means the moon takes exactly 27.32 days to orbit Earth. There are certain times of the year where the moon and sun line up to create a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse. A solar eclipse happens during a new moon and a lunar eclipse only happens during a full moon

The United States followed with three robotic test missions to prepare the path for human exploration of the moon. The first humans to land on the moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20th 1969. This mission was part of the Apollo test series, and was the infamous Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong spent approximately two and a half hours on the lunar surface, and Buzz Aldrin spent a little less. They collected almost 50 lbs. of moon rock and other various materials to bring back to The United States for further study. The lunar landing was broadcasted on national television, and the famous quote from Armstrong as he stepped foot off the modules ladder, “that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The crewmembers left an American Flag, a patch to honor a fallen Apollo 1 member, and other various items. The moon got its name because before Galileo Galilei discovered that there were other moons in the solar system, people thought our moon was the only moon. For instance, the four moons that orbit Jupiter were given the names of Greek Goddess’ so that they wouldn’t be confused with our moon. They are moons too because they act as natural satellites just like our moon does to