Questions tagged [the-moon]
Questions regarding Earth's only natural satellite. For questions about the natural satellites of other planets, use the tag [natural-satellite].
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What's the closest Venus gets to the moon?
I recently observed the beautiful sight of Venus quite close to the crescent moon, and was wondering, what the closest (angular distance as seen from earth) they come.
Are there on-line tables or ...
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Are these parallel lines I'm seeing in this image a real pattern on the Moon?
In this question I mention the GIF in EarthSky.org's Moon Phases update Lengths of lunar months in 2017. After watching it a while, I've noticed a pattern of parallel nearly vertical lines on the Moon ...
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If earth changed its orbit, what would happen to the moon?
Let there be an accelerating force acting on earth over an arbitrarily long time to change its orbit around the sun (e.g. by asteroids repeatedly passing by close to earth (intentional or not) or ...
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What causes the abundance of dust to 'float' in the thin lunar atmosphere?
Several missions to the Moon have revealed a lunar horizon glow, such as the ones seen below by the spacecraft Surveyor 7 in 1968:
Image source: NASA
According to the NASA article "Model Helps ...
user15217
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Can lunar atmospheric density, as it exists today, increase naturally?
Are there any mechanisms which could increase the density of the moon's atmosphere.
The moon's existing atmosphere is exceeding rare, with about 1 000 000 molecules of gas per cubic centimeter at the ...
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How does the length of the minor semi-axis of the moon's disc's inner terminator vary through the cycle?
The curve that separates the bright and dark parts of the moon's disc as viewed from the earth is called the inner lunar terminator, which is semi-elliptical in shape. We can model the disc as a unit ...
user15430
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Can the Moon provide momentum to an object in Earth's orbit? Gravity Assisted Boost [closed]
Can a satellite maintain an equatorial orbit around Earth near the Moon's orbit to receive partial gravitational boosts by gaining momentum as the satellite passes though the Moon's gravity well?
I'...
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Non-Newtonian motion of the moon
I watched an interesting excerpt from a BBC show on the work of the McDonald Observatory in its laser measurements of the distance to the moon which are apparently accurate to within a few centimeters....
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How does the sun move over the year in the sky of the Moon?
Wikipedia's section on the Moon's inclination says it is always 1.5° to the ecliptic. Does that mean that as seen from its surface, over the year the sun at zenith would move 1.5° to the north,...
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How can I calculate when the new moon will be observed from a particular meridian?
I have read that Chinese months start on the day on which the new moon is observed from the 120th meridian east. From this I am assuming that the new moon is observable from there each time and that ...
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Does supermoon's white light splits into seven colours
I took a photo of SuperMoon 2016 and it was very shiny, the light around it showed seven colours. Was it my camera's effect or was it the moonlight's true colours.
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Is the moon "perfectly" tidally locked and, if not, how long would it take us to observe it's rotation?
I have a general understanding of how and why a body in space can be tidally locked to it's planet or sun and I'm aware that our moon is in such a state.
My question is, if our moon once had a ...
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How do we know that a natural satellite cannot be a hollow object?
In their 1966 book, Intelligent Life in the Universe, Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky state that "a natural satellite cannot be a hollow object." How do we know this is absolutely true?
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How do we get the angular size of a crater without lens?
Suppose I want to calculate the diameter of the crater. I apply the small angle formula $$diameter=\frac{\theta_{diameter}}{206265''}\times D$$ where $\theta_{diameter}$ is the angular size of the ...
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Length of a tidal day or by how much is the Moon late each day?
A tidal day is the MEAN time between successive meridian transits of the Moon. (This is sometimes called called a lunar day, a term that should be deprecated for use in this sense, because it is also ...
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How close must a full moon be to become a supermoon?
According to this answer there is a scale of super moons depending on how close the full moon(henceforth anti-sol) is to perigee. So how close to anti-sol does the moon's perigee need to be to be ...
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What made the recent supermoon so super?
I understand that a "regular supermoon" is a full moon when the moon is at perigee (closest to earth in its orbit).
They seem to happen often, here's a post from one last year. But I've seen news ...
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How can the next supermoon be analytically predicted?
The lunar motion can be predicted with basic celestial mechanics, but the perigee and apogee are not always the same, basically because the attraction of the Sun makes some oscilations in the semi-...
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What would be the difference in distance between earth and moon on supermoon night (14 November 2016)
As we all know the usual distance between earth and moon is 384,400 km.
But i was thinking how much closer it will be on 14 November 2016, as it will be a supermoon, the brightest and biggest moon in ...
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Why and how the Moon experiences only slight tidal forces [closed]
I understood the literal meaning of the red-underlined sentences, but frankly speaking, I don't know the processes. I mean I want to know how Earth's rotation makes a cycle of two high and two low ...
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Is it possible that Fly a Boeing 777 plane on Moon? [closed]
i always wondered that Is it possible that Fly a Boeing 777 Air Craft on Moon? if cannot how this moon lander's (Apollo) landing in Moon taking off from the moon?
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Recurrence of Moon at Virgo's "feet"
A friend of mine saw a video that claimed the moon appears to be at the feet of the constellation Virgo about once every 17 years with its next occurrence being in September 2017. Is there any ...
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Will the Earth ever be tidally locked to the Moon?
From my basic understating,
Momentum is being transfered from the Earth's rotation to the Moon's orbit by tidal friction. The Earth's rotation slows down and the Moon receedes from the Earth as it ...
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How to know when the moon is visible on a particular night?
I am looking for beginners information on how I can know when the Moon is going to be visible on a particular night ?
Google-fu says to look for moonrise information about my city from websites such ...
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Why does the Moon's terminator look "wrong" in this image?
There is a picture of the moon in National Public Radio's on-line article Get Ready For Halloween By Watching The Moon's 'Occultation' Tonight. It looks wrong to me - specifically, the brightness ...
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The drift of the Moon's equatorial rotation velocity
Are there any citation or documentation showing the measured degradation of the Moon's equatorial rotation velocity (thus affecting its moon's axial rotation)?
I am looking for the drift of the Moon'...
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From our world's perspective, does the full moon look larger in one city than it does in another?
When I was a very little girl, my dad talked about the HUGE full moon he saw while in the navy. He made the comment during a full moon we were having in Western NYS. He said, this (harvest) moon is ...
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When the moon eclipses the sun what direction is darkened first: left or right?
I saw the question and answer for the explanation of the direction of the moon's eclipse from left to right, but what about the direction of the moon as it passes over or between Earth and the sun?
...
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Why haven't I seen the Moon?
It has been some time since I've seen the Moon. What are the conditions that might affect whether or not the Moon is visible within a 24-hour period?
Please take into consideration any notable ...
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How easy would be to see the Moon from Mars?
This question arises from "What planet is better than earth to infer solar system configuration?", where one of the answers pointed that it's easier to discover the Moon from Mars than discovering the ...
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Can Earth host another natural satellite than the Moon?
Are there orbits with long-term stability (astronomical time scales) around Earth? Low altitude orbits will decay due to friction with Earth's atmosphere. Inside Earth's Roche limit, a Moon could not ...
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The Hollow Moon Story [closed]
I've heard on various programs (yes TV) with "supposed" experts in various fields that there is evidence which would suggest that the moon could be hollow. The experts ranged from scientists, sound/...
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Does the moon have days?
As like Earth, does the moon have a day (24 hours). If it has, how many hours are in a moon day?.
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Observations of a perigee coincident with a full Moon
Hopefully this will be a quick and easy question, with a quick and easy answer, but why is it that we observe a perigee Moon coincident with a full Moon approximately every 13 months? Is this related ...
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Can radio telescopes such as arecibo image the subsurface of asteroids or planets?
This was done with the moon: Radio Dishes Peer Beneath Moon's Surface
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Why is the Lunar Node in a daily motion?
I've read a lot about the Lunar Nodes online (on Wikipedia, astro.com and a bunch of other websites), but there is one thing I cannot figure out and the sources don't seem to clearly explain: why are ...
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How many rovers now on Moon? [closed]
The Apollo missions took moving rovers to the Moon. How many moving rovers are presently on the Moon?
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Is there any residual oscillation left from the Moon rotation?
The Moon is tidally locked to Earth - a long time ago it was spinning, but after a time, the spin stopped - two factors stabilizing it: unequal mass distribution creating an equilibrium position where ...
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Why are tides biggest during the equinoxes?
I've read that during the equinoxes, tides are at their maximum. Shouldn't this only apply to latitudes near the equator? I mean, when the solar declination is near to 0º and we have a full or new ...
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Why does the Moon appear gray when passing between the Sun and the Earth?
Shouldn't the Moon appear as bright as a full Moon seen at midnight from Earth?
The photo was taken by DSCOVR at Lagrange point 1.
In the picture, The Moon appears dark gray. Of course the Earth ...
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Is this a real picture of the moon?
I found this picture and I am really wondering if it is possible for the moon to get as close to the earth as this picture shows?
( Super moon above Rio De Janeiro)
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How often is a blue moon?
A blue moon is two full moons in the same month. How many times will a blue moon occur in the average lifetime of say 70 years?
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Has anyone filmed a total lunar eclipse from the Moon's perspective?
With all of the footage we have of total lunar eclipses, has NASA, ESA, or any other space program ever taken a photo or video of it from the Moon itself?
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lunar calendar accuracy for predicting new moons
I wonder, how accurate the lunar calendar is?
Can we predict the new moons precisely for tens of years in future?
If we know all factors that affects the movement of the moon, then why it is not ...
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Has NASA confirmed earth now has a second moon orbiting the planet?
Several sites claim NASA has confirmed a second moon orbiting earth. This is the Asteroid 2016 HO3. One source states The newfound quasi-satellite/moon-2016 HO3, is likely larger than 120 feet (40 m) ...
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What color is earthshine?
What color is earthshine (e.g the average color of earth that shines on the moon)? I am making a solar system exploration game, and would like to know this for the lighting of my moon level at night, ...
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Two moons and one Earth? [closed]
Can any one explain to me What will happen to Earth if its has two moons?
Same Distance & two sides of earth (North & south)?
Will it be good for humans or bad?
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What is the name of the cycle whereby the lunar azimuth and altitude recur on a given day?
Like the Metonic cycle, except for position in the sky, not phase.
Original question: If I look up at the moon tonight, how long before it is in the same apparent position, and same phase, again?
I ...
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What would Earth be like without the Moon?
If somehow our moon was destroyed (for example by an asteroid) what would happen to Earth?
Would the Earth be affected by the absence of the moon? Would humans be able to live normal lives without ...
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Is it possible for the year to have 11 full moons (i.e. the opposite of a blue moon)
A blue moon is so called for when we have 13 full moons in a year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon
Is it possible to have 11 fun moons in a year? (Maybe if we included calendar changes, for ...
