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The moon has about 3 trillion craters! (And that's only counting the ones
larger than one meter in diameter.) |
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Scientists believe nearly all the moon's craters were formed by the impact
of meteorites, rocks that fly through space at very high speeds, then crash
on the surface. Most of this happened billions of years ago in the early
days of the moon. |
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The moon's largest crater is called "Bailly". It's about 183 miles wide
and over 13,000 deep! |
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In ancient times, people thought the bright regions on the moon's face were
continents and the dark regions were oceans. Scientists still refer to
these dark regions as "maria", which is Latin for "seas". |
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The lunar sky is always black, even when the sun is shining. You can't
have a colored sky without an atmosphere! |
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Man first landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Because there's no wind or
water on the moon, this footprint will last for millions of years!
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What we call "the dark side of the moon" isn't really dark. Both sides of
the moon get sunlight half the time. But since the far side always faces
away from earth, we never see its reflected light. |
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The far side was first seen in 1959, through photographs taken by the
unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 3. Turns out it looks pretty much like the
side we can see, but without the dark "maria" that make up what we call the
face. |
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When the moon is less than half-full it's called a crescent.
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When it's more than half-full (but not full) it's called a gibbous. Isn't
gibbous a silly word?
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