Facts about the Moon

What is a Super moon?

A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is at its perigee. Perigee is the moon’s closest point to Earth in its orbit. This makes the moon look larger than its usual size when observed from Earth. The technical name for this is perigee-syzygy. Syzygy is a phase when the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are aligned in a straight line. This happens every time we have a full moon.

Some facts about the Super Moon

• The term supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle.
• Out of the possible 12 or 13 full moons we have each year, usually, 3 or 4 may be classified as full moons.
• Super moons do not have any significant impact on the conditions on Earth. The only impact is on the spring tides which would be few inches larger than usual due to higher gravitational full of the moon.

Why does the moon turn red during a Lunar Eclipse?

Moon does not produce any light of its own. White light is mixture of various visible colors. When the sunlight falls on the Moon, it reflects all these visible colors equally to the Earth’s surface. Hence to us the moon appears to be white. But during a lunar eclipse when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, the Moon appears red. This happens due to the Earth’s atmosphere. When the Sunlight enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it scatters the lights having shorter wavelengths. However red light which has the longest wavelength is least scattered. Hence it is able to reach the Moon, making it look red.

Why do we see only one side of the moon?

The moon takes about 27 days to rotate around its own axis and 27.3 days to revolve around the Earth. This means the Moon rotates around its own axis at almost the same rate at which it revolves around the Earth. Hence the same side of the Moon is constantly visible to us on Earth. Since the Moon has an elliptical orbit, we can actually see around 59% of the Moon’s surface.

Why do we weight less on the Moon

Weight is the force with which an object is pulled towards the center of the Earth or any other Celestial body. This force is called the gravitational force. Greater the gravitational force exerted by the celestial body more will be the weight of the object present on it. Gravitational force is directly proportional to the mass of an object. Greater the mass, greater will the gravitational force exerted by the object and hence greater the weight. As the moon is smaller in size, it has less mass, hence we weight less on the Moon’s surface.