draw a circle on a piece of paper (use the entire space) at your table group, gather around your...
TRANSCRIPT
What is this object?
What causes the moon to change shape?
Moon Phase Activity
Draw a circle on a piece of paper (use the entire space)
At your table group, gather around your “moon” and observe where the light from your “sun” hits it and where it does not
Position “moon” in the center of the table. Prop your flashlight up on a binder so the light hits the equator of the earth.
Draw your “moon” in 3D from your point of view by shading the part of the sphere where the light does not hit it.
The Moon
The moon doesn’t shine like stars, but it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun (although its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to coal).
The Moon
The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite.
It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its “mother planet”.
It is a quarter the diameter of Earth (about the size of the United States.)
How far away is it?
The Moon's current average orbital distance is 238,855 miles from Earth, which is about thirty times the diameter of the Earth.
This causes it to appear almost the same size in the sky as the Sun, allowing it to cover the Sun nearly precisely in total solar eclipses.
Phases of the Moon
There are eight moon phases 4 main phases, and 4 transitional phases Main phases only last a day Transitional phases last about a week
Moon Phases
The Terminator is the line separating the illuminated portion of the Moon from the dark part.
The horns are the ends of the terminator when the Moon is in crescent phase.
Galileo Galilei's "The Phases of the Moon"Image courtesy of Biblioteca Nazionale Florence, Italy
How can we understand the phases of the Moon as it circles around the Earth?
What causes the Moon to change its appearance in this way?
A. As the Moon orbits Earth, Earth's shadow covers the Moon.
B. Clouds block part of the Moon from our view so it is full sometimes and covered other times.
C. As the Moon orbits Earth, the part of the Moon facing Earth is facing away from the Sun.
Sometimes the Moon looks like this And sometimes the
Moon looks like this
The Near Side
What is happening in this picture?
Discuss with your table group and come up with an answer that explains what this phenomenon.
The Near Side
The Moon used to rotate at a faster rate, but early in its history, its rotation slowed and became locked in this orientation as a result of frictional effects associated with the tides on Earth.
The Moon The Moon is in
synchronous rotation with the Earth: it rotates on its axis in about the same time it takes to orbit the Earth.
This results in it always keeping the same face turned towards the Earth.
The Moon
The side we see is called the “near side”
The side we don’t see is called the “far side”
Moon Geology
the near side of the moon is marked with three different features: “maria,” “highlands,” and impact craters.
Maria
The dark and relatively featureless lunar plains which can clearly be seen with the naked eye are called maria (Latin for "seas"; singular mare), since they were believed by ancient astronomers to be filled with water.
Higlands
The lighter-colored regions of the Moon are called terrae, or more commonly highlands, since they are higher than most maria.
Moon Craters
The other major geologic process that has affected the Moon's surface are craters.
There are estimated to be roughly 300,000 craters wider than 1 km on the Moon's near side alone
The Tides
The Moon's gravitational influence produces the ocean tides.
It is also responsible for the length of our calendar week and month.
TIDES The moon's
gravitational force pulls on water in the oceans so that there are "bulges" in the ocean on both sides of the planet.
The moon pulls water toward it, and this causes the bulge toward the moon. The bulge on the other side of the Earth is caused by the moon "pulling the Earth away" from the water on that side.
TIDES If you are on the
coast and the moon is directly overhead, you should experience a high tide.
The twin bulges and the moon's rotation mean that any given coastal city experiences a high tide every 12 hours or so.
Thinking about the Moon
1) How much of the Moon receives sunlight at a given time? Always half the Moon? Sometimes more or less than half? Why?
2) During new moon (when the moon appears dark) is sunlight falling anywhere on the Moon's surface? If not, why not? If so, why don't we see it?
3) Is the Earth or the Moon closer to the Sun during the new moon? How do you know you are right?
4) Which is closer to the Sun during the full
moon? How do you know you’re right?
The Moon moves in its orbit about 12 degrees per day
It rises about an hour later each night. Why?
Bring the perspective back to Earth
Ansel Adams; copyright © 2000 George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Understanding the Moon in the Sky
I’m really way off to the right
Now I’m right here!
Moon and Venus
before Dawn
Where are the Earth, Moon and Sun in 3-dimensional space?
Where is Venus?
Moon Vocab
Regolith: Lunar soil
Comet: A large, icy, rare visitor from the outer reaches of the Solar System.
Asteroid: Large chunks of rocky material from within the Solar System.
Meteoroid: Any small object flying through space that might collide with another object. When a meteoroid hits an object it is a meteorite.
Ejecta: Material thrown out of a crater on impact. (rays)
Our Moon History
The Moon is the only celestial body on which humans have landed.
Our Moon History
The Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959.
However, the United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by Apollo 8 in 1968.
After that six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972—the first being Apollo 11 in 1969.
Apollo Landings
Rocket to the Moon!
The three-stage Saturn V was taller than a 36-story building. It was the largest, most powerful rocket ever launched.
With a cluster of five powerful engines in each of the first two stages and using high-performance liquid hydrogen fuel for the upper stages, the Saturn V was one of the great feats of 20th-century engineering.
Video of Historic Moon Landing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4
Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the surface of the moon on July 21, 1969.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Moon History Continued
After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by unmanned spacecraft.
Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States, and the European Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters.
These spacecraft have contributed to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles.
Future manned missions to the Moon are planned but not yet underway.
The Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.
Moon Phases
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXseTWTZlks&list=FL7Iy8mcqLy6rb0jWB8VEA1A&index=56&feature=plpp_video
Moon phases therefore have to do with the position of the moon around the earth and how much sunlight is hitting the surface that we can see.
Basic Ideas The Earth orbits the
Sun in one year. Revolution
The Earth spins around once each day Rotation
The Moon orbits the Earth about once a month Revolution
Phases as seen from Earth
Which of the following four diagrams most accurately depicts the Earth's orbit around the Sun?
The Inner Solar System
The Solar System from “Overhead”
91,369,000 miles on Jan 4 (minimum) 94,776,000 miles on July 4 (maximum) average distance is 92,918,000 miles
Varies +/- about 2% from a perfect circle