Did you know the moon was shrinking?
If the Artemis missions go to plan, people will be walking on the moon again within a few years. So it's high time we scrubbed up our knowledge about our lunar satellite. Here are seven facts to get you going.
The moon is shrinking!
According to NASA research, the moon is slowly losing heat, which causes its surface to shrivel up like a grape turning into a raisin. But that's not all: its interior is shrinking! The moon has become about 50 meters (150 feet) "skinnier" over the past several hundred million years.
How did that US flag wave?
Conspiracy theorists believe that the lunar landing was a fake, and that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked around on July 21st, 1969, on a soundstage instead of the moon. They point to the fact that the flag planted by Aldrin waved as if moved by the wind, which would be impossible in space's vacuum. NASA's explanation: Aldrin was twisting the flagpole while planting it in the ground.
Scorching hot and freezing cold
If it's summer in your neck of the woods, you might be sweating right now. But just remember: temperatures are a little more extreme on the moon. When the sun hits its surface, it can get up to 127 degrees Celsius (260 degrees Fahrenheit) hot. Without the warm glow, temperatures can drop down to -153 degrees Celsius (-243 degrees Fahrenheit). Brrr!
Man on the moon
The myth of a person living on the moon has existed for almost as long as Earth's satellite itself. Some people see a face on the surface of the full moon, composed of the dark lunar plains and the lighter lunar highlands. Many cultures have tales about an actual person who committed some kind of misdeed and was banished to the moon for it. Astronauts are yet to encounter them, though.
Drifting apart — the end of solar eclipses
The moon is drifting away from Earth at a speed of almost 4 centimeters (1.5 inches) per year. The farther away our satellite is, the smaller it appears to us. In about 550 million years, it'll look too small to "cover" all of the sun, even at its closest position to Earth. That'll mean no more total solar eclipses.
Wolves don't care
Ah, howling at the moon — no old-timey scary movie is complete without it. But in fact, wolves do not intensify their howling when a full moon rolls around, and they don't direct their howls at the moon, either. They simply yowl at night, which is also the time when a full moon is most visible. That could be one reason our ancestors drew the connection.
Moon-walkers: Not a very diverse bunch
12 humans have walked on the moon so far. While they come from various professional fields, they have a couple of things in common: All of them are American, all of them are white and all of them are men. Let's see where the first non-American on the moon will be from — maybe it'll be a woman and/or person of color, too!