Hey all,
I am Chris, a local in the Comoonity building and wanted to make a thread of some info I have regarding the moon.
I thought it would be a good idea to educate people and allow people to share anything they know about the moon. I will try update it as I keep going but I might get lost in the information as there is so much to cover.
Anyway here is what I know, speak to you all soon.
Facts about the moon:
The name of the Moon is Luna.
The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite and the fifth largest moon in the solar system.
The Moon’s presence helps stabilize the Earth's wobble and moderate our climate.
The Moon’s distance from Earth is about 240,000 miles (385,000km).
The Moon has a very thin atmosphere called an exosphere.
The Moon’s surface is cratered and pitted from comet and asteroid impacts.
Earth's Moon is the fifth largest of the 200+ moons orbiting planets in our solar system.
The splitting up of the 7 days is something the ancient Romans did, and they named each day of the week after the 7 sacred lunaries or the 7 naked eye planets (wanderers) Moon, Mercury, Venus, The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn. Each day of the week was named after one of the 7 heavenly bodies which was seen to rule over it.
Sunday - The Sun
Monday - The Moon
Tuesdays - Mars
Wednesday - Mercury
Thursday - Jupiter
Friday - Venus
Saturday - Saturn
Each day has connections through the different languages which are represented around the world. Each language has a different story which follows the naming of the day, but also has similarities.
How many phases of the Moon are there?
In between these, the Moon goes through multiple stages of partial illumination during its different phases. These are the banana-shaped crescent Moon, the D-shaped quarter Moon and the almost complete gibbous Moon.
Finally, each phase is also named after its position in the full 29.5 day cycle based on whether it is growing (waxing) or shrinking (waning).
The eight phases of the Moon in order are:
new Moon
waxing crescent Moon
first quarter Moon
waxing gibbous Moon
full Moon
waning gibbous Moon
last quarter Moon
waning crescent Moon.
The full, quarter and new Moons are all the instants in time when the Moon is exactly fully, half or not at all illuminated from our perspective on Earth. The crescent and gibbous Moons each last approximately a week.