The Moon has no global magnetic field hence you cannot use a compass to find your direction while on the moon.īy measuring the ages of lunar rocks, it was concluded that the moon is about 4.6 billion years old about the same age as Earth. We see slightly more than half of the moon from Earth and we always see the same side of the Moon from Earth. The moon’s size is about ¼ of the size of the Earth and its gravity is roughly 17% that of the Earth Interesting Facts About The Moon #12 It was built by the Soviet Union in October 1959.
The first space craft to send back pictures from the moon was Luna 3 in October 1959. The moon is the only extraterrestrial body that has ever been visited by humans as well as had samples taken from it. The moon rotates at 10 miles per hour compared to the earth’s rotation of 1000 miles per hour and it orbits the Earth at an average speed of 2,300 miles an hour (3,700 kilometers an hour). The moon’s surface area is about 14,658,000 square miles or 9.4 billion acres and the distance between the Earth and the moon averages about 238,900 miles (384,000 kilometers). The Apollo missions brought back 2196 rock samples weighing 382 kg in total. The dark shadows on the moon are called “the toad in the moon” in China. Interesting Facts About The Moon #5 Interesting Facts About The Moon Interesting Facts About The Moon #4Īpollo 15 was the first mission to use a lunar rover whose top speed was 10.56 miles per hour. Space suits worn by astronauts when headed to the moon weigh about 180 pounds while on earth and about thirty pounds while on the moon due to the moon’s lower force of gravity.
Interesting Facts About The Moon #2ġ3% of those who participated in a survey that was conducted in 1988 believed that the moon is made of cheese. The Lunar Prospector spacecraft crashed into a crater on the moon on July 31, 1999. Eugene Shoemaker, a Geological Surveyor who educated the Apollo mission astronauts regarding craters never traveled to the moon because of medical issues but when he died, he was cremated and his ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft on January 6, 1999.