How are the near side and the far side of the moon similar and different in appearance? Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitude of impact craters and relatively few flat and dark lunar maria ("seas"), giving it an appearance closer to other barren places in the solar system such as Mercury and Callisto. It has one of the largest craters in the Solar System, the South Pole–Aitken basin.
What phase is the far side of the moon?
The far side is fully illuminated at New Moon. The reason the same side of the Moon always faces Earth is that the Moon rotates around its axis at the same speed as it revolves around Earth.
What is the name of the far side of the moon?
It has one of the largest craters in the Solar System, the South Pole–Aitken basin. The hemisphere is sometimes called the "dark side of the Moon", where "dark" means "unknown" instead of "lacking sunlight" – both sides of the Moon experience two weeks of sunlight while the opposite side experiences two weeks of night.
How do the near and far sides of the Moon compare quizlet?
The near side of the moon has more maria than the far side. 2. What is the difference between the far side of the moon and the dark side of the moon? The far side is the side away from the earth, and the dark side is the side in shadow opposite from the sun.
Does Moon have a dark side?
The 'dark side' of the Moon refers to the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from the Earth. In reality it is no darker than any other part of the Moon's surface as sunlight does in fact fall equally on all sides of the Moon. For consistency, we'll refer to the 'far side' for the rest of the article.
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Who is the last human stepped on the moon?
During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh man to walk on the Moon. As he re-entered the Apollo Lunar Module after Harrison Schmitt on their third and final lunar excursion, he is the last man to walk on the Moon as of 2021.
Why is one side of the moon always dark?
One lunar side always faces Earth, or is tidally locked, because the moon's rotation and orbit is closely synced-up with our planet's. The moon spins about its axis and orbits the sun with Earth, so its night or "dark" side is constantly moving.
Do we see different sides of the moon?
The Moon orbits Earth once every 27.3 days and spins on its axis once every 27.3 days. This means that although the Moon is rotating, it always keeps one face toward us. Known as “synchronous rotation,” this is why we only ever see the Moon's nearside from Earth.
Does everyone on Earth see the same side of the moon?
Yes, everyone sees the same phases of the Moon. People north and south of the equator do see the Moon's current phase from different angles, though. Seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the waning crescent appeared on the left side of the Moon. Seen from the Southern Hemisphere, the crescent appeared on the right.
Why are there fewer maria on the far side of the moon than on the near side?
They believe that the absence of maria, which is due to a difference in crustal thickness between the near side of the moon and the far side, is a consequence of how the moon originally formed. Researchers immediately noticed that fewer maria on the portion of the moon that always faces away from Earth.
How many mountains are in the moon?
Two major mountain ranges divide two other features of the lunar landscape. The Mare Serenitatis ("Sea of Serenity") is separated from the Mare Imbrium ("Sea of Showers") by the Montes Caucasus to the north and the Montes Apenninus to the south.
What fraction of the moon surface area is on the far side?
Only 50% of the total surface area of the moon is visible from the Earth or faces the Earth. The remaining 50% of the moon's surface remains to be in the darker side that is this fraction faces away from the Earth. In this 50%, 9% of the moon's surface can be seen due to the lunar libration.
Why does the moon not rotate?
The illusion of the moon not rotating from our perspective is caused by tidal locking, or a synchronous rotation in which a locked body takes just as long to orbit around its partner as it does to revolve once on its axis due to its partner's gravity. (The moons of other planets experience the same effect.)
How long does it take to get to the moon?
It takes about 3 days for a spacecraft to reach the Moon. During that time a spacecraft travels at least 240,000 miles (386,400 kilometers) which is the distance between Earth and the Moon. The specific distance depends on the specific path chosen.
Is there sunlight on the moon?
The moon shines because its surface reflects light from the sun. And despite the fact that it sometimes seems to shine very brightly, the moon reflects only between 3 and 12 percent of the sunlight that hits it. The perceived brightness of the moon from Earth depends on where the moon is in its orbit around the planet.
Has a woman walked on the Moon?
Only 12 humans, all men, have ever walked on the Moon; all human Moon missions were part of the U.S. Apollo program between 1969 and 1972. No woman has ever walked on the Moon.
Who is the third man to walk on the Moon?
Orbiting dozens of miles above the lunar surface, he kept solitary watch of the Apollo command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin embarked for the moon.
Can you see the Sun in space?
What color is the sky on Mars?
The blue color near the Sun is not caused by clouds of water ice, but by the Martian dust itself. The dust in the atmosphere absorbs blue light, giving the sky its red color, but it also scatters some of the blue light into the area just around the Sun because of its size.
Which country landed the first human made object on the far side of the Moon?
The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959.
What was found on the Moon?
NASA has discovered water on the sunlit surface of the moon, scientists said Monday, a finding that could help in efforts to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. Water ice has been found on the moon before, in the coldest, darkest regions at the north and south poles.
Where do we always see the same side of the Moon?
Although we see many phases of the Moon, we do not see many faces. From Earth we always see (nearly) the same face of the Moon. This happens because the Moon rotates on its axis in the same amount of time it takes to orbit Earth, a trait called synchronous rotation. A simple demonstration shows the idea.
What will happen to your weight when you go to the moon?
The more mass a person has, the greater the pull of gravity on them. Since the Moon is smaller than Earth, it has a weaker gravitational pull. In fact, the Moon only has 1/6 the gravity that Earth does. This means you weigh six times less on the Moon than you do on Earth!
What will happen if the moon stops revolving around the Earth?
It is the pull of the Moon's gravity on the Earth that holds our planet in place. Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, it is possible that the Earth's tilt could vary wildly. It would move from no tilt (which means no seasons) to a large tilt (which means extreme weather and even ice ages).
How cold is the dark side of the moon?
On the dark side of the moon with no sun, temperatures can be as low as -232 degrees Celsius, or -387 degrees Fahrenheit! It can get even lower than that is certain areas. The moon has a relatively minimal tilt.
Does the Moon rotate around the equator?
But the Moon always spins at the same rotational speed. Finally, the Moon does not orbit around the Earth directly above our equator. No, the Moon's orbit is tilted by 6.7 degrees to the Earth's equator. So sometimes we can see more of the Moon's south pole, and at other times, more of its north pole.
Which side of the Moon is lit by the sun?
It does not show which side of the Moon is lit by the Sun. The side lit by the Sun is always the side that is pointed toward the Sun, as seen in the diagram below on the left. We only see the Moon because sunlight reflects back to us from its surface.
How long does it take for the Moon to revolve around the Earth?
This movement is from the Moon's orbit, which takes 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes to go full circle. It causes the Moon to move 12–13 degrees east every day. This shift means Earth has to rotate a little longer to bring the Moon into view, which is why moonrise is about 50 minutes later each day.
Is it cold or hot on the Moon?
Temperatures on the moon are very hot in the daytime, about 100 degrees C. At night, the lunar surface gets very cold, as cold as minus 173 degrees C. This wide variation is because Earth's moon has no atmosphere to hold in heat at night or prevent the surface from getting so hot during the day.
What does waxing gibbous?
The Waxing Gibbous is an intermediate phase of the Moon that starts right after the First Quarter when the illumination is 50%. The name Gibbous comes from the Moon's shape, which is less than a Full Moon but more extensive than the Third Quarter's semicircle shape. Waxing means that the Moon is getting bigger.
Will the moon ever crash into Earth?
Long answer: The Moon is in a stable orbit around Earth. There is no chance that it could just change its orbit and crash into Earth without something else really massive coming along and changing the situation. The Moon is actually moving away from Earth at the rate of a few centimetres per year.
Can astronauts see the earth spinning?
As others have pointed out, you can “see” the spinning of the Earth by watching the stars rotate around a point close to the North Star. The spinning of the Earth also reduces the amount you weigh when you travel to the Equator, due to the centrifugal force of the spin.
What are the main differences on the surface between the near and far side of the moon?
It's also two-faced: The near side looks a lot different than the far side, as you can see from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image above. The near side is splattered with dark regions (called maria, the plural of mare, Latin for “sea”). The far side barely has any.
What caused the maria on the moon?
Planetary Satellites, Natural
The result was the melting and eruption of basaltic lava onto the lunar surface between 3.8 to about 2.8 billion years ago to form the lunar maria. This lava was highly fluid under the weaker gravitational field of the Moon and spread over vast distances.