Moon Facts

And for those of you scientifically minded folks who are interested in some practical data on the moon…

Here is a nice list of moon-facts (courtesy of moonconnection.com)~ photos by me!

The moon is not a planet, but a satellite of the Earth.
The surface area of the moon is 14,658,000 square miles or 9.4 billion acres
Only 59% of the moon’s surface is visible from earth.
The moon rotates at 10 miles per hour compared to the earth’s rotation of 1000 miles per hour.
When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is called a blue moon. Another definition of a blue moon is the third full moon in any
season (quarter of year) containing 4 total full moons.
From Earth, we always see the same side of the moon; the other side is always hidden.
The dark spots we see on the moon that create the image of the man in the moon are actually craters filled with basalt, which is a very dense material.
The moon is the only extraterrestrial body that has ever been visited by humans. It is also the only body that has had samples taken from it.
The first space craft to send back pictures from the moon was Luna 3 (built by the Soviet Union) in October 1959.
The moon has no global magnetic field.
The moon is about 1/4 the size of the Earth.