The Full Moon
Credit:
Lick Observatory
Earth has one moon. A symbol in famous
love songs,
movies, poems, and
folklore, many
myths about the
Moon date back to ancient history.
In fact, the name
Monday originates from Moon-day.
The Moon glows by light it reflects from the
Sun and is frequently the brightest object in the night sky.
The
Moon orbits the Earth about once a month (moon-th)
from about 1 light second away. The
above-pictured Full Moon occurs when the Moon
is nearly opposite to the Sun in its orbit.
The Moon's diameter is about 1/4 that of the
Earth, and from the
Earth's surface appears to have almost exactly
the same angular size as the Sun. Recent
evidence indicates that the
Moon formed from a colossal impact on the
Earth
about 4.5 billions of years ago, and therefore has a
similar composition to the Earth.
Humans walked on the Moon
for the first time in 1969.