Moon - Setting - Over - Amelia Island
by D Hackett
Title
Moon - Setting - Over - Amelia Island
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
Moon setting over Amelia Island Florida by D Hackett
The moon is the same age as the Earth and the rest of the solar system � about 4.5 billion years. Our solar system was all formed at that time. It is about 250,000 miles from Earth to the moon and is about 2,000 miles across.
The moon is the easiest celestial object to find in the night sky � when it's there. Moon phases and the moon's orbit are a mystery to many. Because it takes 27.3 days both to rotate on its axis and to orbit Earth, the moon always shows us the same face. We see the moon because of reflected sunlight. How much of it we see depends on its position in relation to Earth and the sSun.
Though a satellite of Earth, the moon is bigger than Pluto. Some scientists think of it as a planet (four other moons in our solar system are even bigger), though that viewpoint has never caught on officially. There are various theories about how the moon was created, but recent evidence indicates it formed when a huge collision tore a chunk of Earth away.
Tidal effects
The moon's gravity pulls at the Earth, causing predictable rises and falls in sea levels known as tides. To a much smaller extent, tides also occur in lakes, the atmosphere, and within the Earth's crust.
High tides are when water bulges upward, and low tides are when water drops down. High tide results on the side of the Earth nearest the moon due to gravity, and it also happens on the side farthest from the moon due to the inertia of water. Low tides occur between these two humps.
The pull of the moon is also slowing the Earth's rotation, an effect known as tidal braking that increases the length of our day by 2.3 milliseconds per century. The energy that Earth loses is picked up by the moon, increasing its distance from the Earth, which means the moon gets farther away by 3.8 centimeters annually.
The moon's gravitational pull might have been key to making Earth a livable planet by moderating the degree of wobble in Earth's axial tilt, which led to a relatively stable climate over billions of years where life could flourish.
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June 23rd, 2013
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