MOON

- Moon was formed almost 4.5 billion years ago due to a collusion of an asteroid with earth. It has a radius of 1,737 km compared to the 6,371 km radius of earth... which means that, almost one fourth of earth was separated due to the collusion and has formed into the moon

- After the separation, the moon has become the natural satellite for the earth. It revolves round the earth just as if the earth was revolving round the sun. However, the gravity on moon is much weaker than earth. A person weighing 100 kilos on earth would only weigh 16.5 kilos on moon.

- We know that the earth has its own atmosphere, i.e. earth is surrounded by various layers of gases. But moon has a very negligent atmosphere. Due to the lack of atmosphere, the radiation would directly affect the surface of the moon. As there is no air present, the sound can't travel on the moon. As there is no resistance from the moon, the comets and asteroids could freely hit the moon!

- Have you ever wondered why we see only one side of the moon every time? It's because the time taken by the moon to revolve around itself, is exactly equal to the time taken by it to revolve round the earth i.e. 29.5 days!

- It was thought to be impossible to land on the moon. But Neil Armstrong proved to be the first person to challenge the belief. He landed on the moon in the year of 1969 through a space mission called `Apollo 11`. Ever since... many missions have been directed to reach the moon for several experiments and explorations! India's `Chandrayaan` project is one of them.

- Though many missions were directed to reach the moon... only 12 people have ever walked on the moon and all of them are Americans! Though Rakesh Sharma has been the first Indian to be in the space, no Indians have ever set their foot on the moon. In fact, no man has set his foot on the moon after 1972.

- The moon could shadow the big sun during the solar eclipse because... though the moon is much smaller than the sun... it is nearer to the earth than to the moon!

- The gravitational pull causes certain effect on earth. The tides of the oceans are the direct result of the gravitation between the earth and the moon. Such attraction between the earth and moon in fact slows down the pace of the earth`s revolution.

- There is a bit of frozen water in the shadows of moon`s craters. And the temperatures on the moon vary between 100 degrees to -250 degrees depending on the place and time. These facts give a hope that man can make a living on the moon with certain protection.