Moon

The Moon is the brightest and most significant object in the night sky. In Latin, everything related to the Moon is called Lunar, which is how it got the name Luna. As Earth’s natural satellite, you must have encountered the Moon mentioned and romanticized in rhymes, songs, fairy tales, stories, and myths across multiple languages.

In several cultures, the Moon plays a significant role in Astrology. As per its position on a specific date and time of your birth chart in astrology, the Moon sign can reveal your mental, emotional, and subconscious capabilities. That said, the significance of the Moon sign in Western astrology is very different from that in Vedic and Eastern astrology.

The Moon formed several billion years ago when a planet as giant as Mars collided with the Earth. After initially being molten and its active volcanoes erupted, the magma crystallized after millions of years to form the rocky mantle and lunar dust on the surface. While it’s one-fourth the size of the Earth, the Moon won’t crash into Earth again. It moves away a little more than an inch every year from Earth.

As Earth’s friendly companion, the Moon plays a critical role in stabilizing the tilt of our planet’s orbit. Since it rotates and spins at the same rate around the Earth, you can see the process when it goes from the dark side (new Moon) to the bright side (full Moon). The Moon is also responsible for animals’ ability to adapt to the shift between day and night.

The high and low tides in the oceans you witness today are because of the Moon’s gravitational pull. That’s how the ebb and flow happen in oceans when the gravitational forces of the Moon and Earth combine as they travel together around the Sun.

That said, the gravity on the Moon is one-sixth of that on the Earth. Hence, you can find video footage showing astronauts appearing to bounce while walking on the Moon’s surface.

The Moon reflects the Sun’s light towards Earth and doesn’t generate its light. A lunar eclipse occurs during a full Moon when the Earth comes between the Moon and the Sun. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon appears red in the night sky since it is in the shadow of the Earth. Similarly, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. It happens only during the new Moon.

The Moon’s dance of shadows also includes the gradual crescent shapes of its sunlit parts visible on the Earth. This has led to the birth of the Lunar calendar, which is based on the monthly cycle of the Moon’s phases, including the time between two new or full Moons.

The innermost part of the Moon, called the core, is rich in iron, sulfur, and other elements. Above it is a rocky mantle layer comprising several dense magnesium, silicon, and iron rocks wrapped with oxygen atoms. On its top is the crust that forms the upper surface. The Moon has many craters after numerous collisions with asteroids, comets, and meteors. Accompanying those craters are massive fields of boulders and powder.

Some craters are so large that you can view them using an amateur telescope or capture them on the Moon using a smartphone adept with computational photography.

U.S., Japan, the European Space Agency, China, Israel, and India have managed to send exploration flights to the Moon. Despite several expeditions to the Moon, no concrete evidence exists that it has living things. Many missions to explore the Moon have resulted in the discovery of water ice and a distant potential to be the future destination for human colonies.

But that would involve a lot of physical gear or an expensive setup, mainly because the Moon’s atmosphere is very thin. It doesn’t provide much protection from the Sun’s radiation. In short, life on the Moon is still several moons away.