By Arpita Pandey
When you think about the night sky, one of the first things that's sure to come to your
mind is the moon! How exactly did the moon appear in our sky? It is believed that the moon
used to be part of the Earth, until an object about the size of Mars hit Earth and the impact of that led to chunks of both the Earth and this object into space. These chunks were then pulled together by the pull of gravity to form the moon.
The moon may just look round and obsolete from our view on the ground but it is so
much more than that. It is filled with craters and also contains dust and debris from comets,
asteroid, and meteorite impacts. There are dark areas by the name of Maria also present on its surface. Unlike our Earth, the moon has no atmosphere and about 1⁄6 of the gravity, but similar to our planet, it contains water, which has been proven to be on the craters near the poles.
From Earth, the appearance of the moon is constantly changing. This is due to the phases
of the moon, which we can only see in the first place because of the light that the moon reflects from the sun. These phases are present due to the moon orbiting the Earth and different parts of its surface being lit up during this time. It’s orbit is about 27 days, which is around the length of one month.
The study of the moon started thousands of years ago, when people used their
observations to create their calendars. Thanks to the technology and innovation of recent times, humans are able to travel to the moon. The first man on the moon was NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong in July 20, 1969. This event was one of the biggest for mankind, and his words can still be remembered today. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Since then, many countries such as, India, Russia, and China have sent their astronauts to the moon, and study on the history of the moon and what it may have been like billions of years ago is still ongoing today.
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