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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LLR & Orbital Motion
As I understand it, light that is emitted from a source is not imparted with the motion of the source and so always follows a "straight line". If this is correct, I am having a difficult time ...
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Is it possible for the Sun and the Moon to crash into each other? [closed]
Is it possible for the Sun and the Moon to crash into each other?
If yes, under what conditions? If no, why?
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What is the first recorded reference to the Moon being a satellite of the Earth?
I saw a list recently of the moons of the various planets and the discoverer(s) and date of discovery. Earth's Moon was listed as Unknown.
I know you don't 'discover' a huge disc in the sky. But ...
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Can you see city lights on the Moon from Earth?
This is the opposite of another question. That question is about whether you could see cities on Earth if you were standing on the Moon.
Let's there are cities on the Moon and you're standing on the ...
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The relation between the light of full moon and the distance between the sun and the earth
If we want the full moon to be 2 times more bright,how we should change the distance between the sun and the earth?
Thanks for your help.
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What makes the Moon and Venus shine?
Is there some substance on Venus or some kind of material, because neither bodies have any source of light.
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Far side of the moon question
Do all / most / any other moons orbiting a planet synchronize their rotation so as to become tidally locked with it, or is the earth a special case?
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Longitude of the Ecliptic
I originally went to math.stackexchange.com and they suggested I try here as well.
I'm trying to figure out how to calculate times of moonrise and moonset for a given position on the earth on a ...
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Solar / lunar positions in ECEF using SOFA C libraries
I'd like to calculate the positions of the sun and moon in the ECEF coordinate system using the SOFA (http://www.iausofa.org/current_C.html) libraries given a Julian day input.
So far, I've got this ...
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How Soon Could a Waxing Crescent Moon Be Seen?
Question:
Apart from a Solar Eclipse, How much time is needed until a Waxing Crescent Moon be seen following a New Moon?
Would the time of year be significant? The Vernal Equinox + 1 Month.
Could it ...
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Can we apply Kepler's law of planetary motion to the moons motion around the earth?
I have been trying to understand Kepler's law of planetary motion for a while. So I was thinking, if it would even apply to the moon orbiting around the earth. Does the moon too orbit in an ellipse ...
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The moon: how to determine its size, speed and distance from earth using a simple telescope?
Assuming I only have a simple telescope, how can I determine the size of the moon, its angular velocity and distance from earth?
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Why doesn't the moon twinkle?
Stars twinkle because their light has to squeeze through several different layers of the Earth's atmosphere. So why doesn't the moon twinkle as well?
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What effect does the Moon have on the near Earth asteroid population?
Does the big (0.012 Earth masses) Moon of Earth clear away NEAs, Earth orbit crossing asteroids, in a significant way? Venus and Mars don't have large moons, do they therefore have larger or smaller ...
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Why do Earth and moon move apart but binary black holes move closer?
According to the accepted answer on Is the moon moving further away from Earth and closer to the Sun? Why?, the moon is receding from Earth because tidal forces and friction cause energy to be lost.
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Is the Earth Really Spinning? (honest question)
Most people consider it common knowledge that the Sun's "movement" in the sky is only perceived due to the Earth's "spin and movement".
Based on this, you'd think that the stars in the night sky (...
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Why is it said that the far side of the moon's crust is thicker?
This video states that NASA has determined that the far side of the moon's crust is thicker than the near side's crust. How did they determine this?
Please note I'm not asking for theories or ...
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Why does the planet Saturn have numerous (62) moons compared to the rest of the planets in the Solar System?
Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter. It has everything from
tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has 62 moons with ...
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Does the Sun impose back it's tidal forces onto the Earth (such as the Earth's to the Moon)?
It is known that each year the Moon is moving away from the Earth due to tidal forces.
What about the Earth relative to the Sun?
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The relation of the lit side of the moon and the sun
During different days when both the sun and the moon are seen I notice that the axis of the lit, illuminated, side of the moon does not pass through the sun there is some degree of diversion. Why?
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How unusual is the solar system?
In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, the main characters are looking for the long-lost Earth. There are two major features of the solar system that seem to make it unusual among the millions of ...
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Is there any real chance of getting hit with a meteorite if we build a base on the moon?
I've been reading an article today on how the European Space Agency (ESA) has an interest in building a space village on the moon which will be 3D printed and assembled by robots. Eventually people ...
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What if Earth and Moon revolved around each other like Pluto and Charon?
What would be different for us if Earth and Moon revolved around each other like Pluto and Charon do?
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Would a satellite in geosynchronous orbit between the earth and moon track across the sky together?
On Nov. 25 at 2:30a.m. from southern California while viewing the moon with a 70mm D x 400mm F telescope a point of light was seen at about the 7 o'clock position below the moon. As viewed the point ...
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Venus transiting behind the Earth’s moon December 7, 2015
Observing from Earth what are the odds that Venus does not line up in conjunction with Earth’s moon and does not transit behind the moon but slightly below or above with a complete visual of Venus ...
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why hasn't Nasa gone back to our Moon? [closed]
why has not Nasa gone back to our Moon since the first landing on the moon
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Can we have a second moon?
This question sounds like silly and rather fantasy filled. But can our earth's gravity capture a sizable asteroid and make it rotate around our earth like our moon which become visible from ground. Is ...
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Why is the Color scheme of natural satellites in our solar system based of light shades of grey?
What is the explanation of the color similarity that the majority of natural satellites obtain?
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Does the Moon capture radiation pressure from the sun causing momentum from photon propulsion? [closed]
Could a planet's main use for natural satellites be that of a photon sail?
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Is extraterrestrial mining more difficult or impractical for bodies without plate tectonics?
This article talks about the possibility of mining Uranium on the moon. Since the Moon lacks the geological forces that have created veins of concentrated minerals on Earth, would extraterrestrial ...
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Was that actually a shooting star during the supermoon eclipse on September 27th 2015?
During the super-moon total lunar eclipse on September 27th a meteor-like streak passed very close within view of the event. It appeared to happen at the very middle, the maximum eclipse.
[...
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Do boulders erode differently on asteroids than on the Moon?
If I understand it correctly, boulders on the Moon are only found near fresh craters, because micrometeorites erode them over time. Asteroids are believed to have formed sometimes even earlier than ...
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Illusion of a lunar eclipse [closed]
A little over half a year ago, I think it was mid March 2015, I glanced out of my window at about 4 am, to see what appeared to be a very bright total lunar eclipse, as in, the moon was full and ...
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Why does the moon appear on cloudy night sky?
Now, I was looking the sky when I saw the Moon showing up in a sky completely cloudy, like this:
But a little different. The clouds were doing an eye shape. What does explain that phenomenon? Looks ...
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Volcano activity on moon
Are the dark grey areas on the moon formed from the last lava flows from volcanoes? And that is why there are hardly any craters in those dark grey areas because the lava has covered the old craters?...
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Could an asteroid knock the moon out of its orbit?
As describe in this CNN article, an asteroid is going to pass near the Earth on Halloween.
The article says that
As it misses Earth by about 300,000 miles (slightly farther away than the moon), ...
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Tidal lock of earth and moon
As the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, that means, from Earth we can only ever see one side of the moon.
Can we see all the sides of the Earth, from the moon?
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Super moon or Super lag? [closed]
On Sep 25 2015 in California, at 8pm the moon was observed between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock position in the sky.
On Sep 26 at 8pm at the same location the moon appeared roughly between 11 o' clock ...
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Moon's negative greenhouse effect?
Using the standard formula for effective temperature of a planet, Venus has T(eff)=220K, Earth has T(eff)=255K and Mars has T(eff)=212K (using albedo for Venus a=0.7, Earth a=0.367, Mars a=0.25). ...
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Eclipses of Jupiter's Moon during Retrograde motion
When Jupiter is undergoing retrograde motion as seen from the Earth, would you expect the eclipses of Jupiter’s moons to occur several minutes early, several minutes late, or neither?
Can someone ...
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If a person were to die on the Moon or Mars, would the body decompose?
There wouldn't be enough oxygen for any bacteria to decompose the body, right? Not to mention, the radiation of space might kill off most organisms on it. So would it decompose, given millions of ...
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How to get from the earth to another planet/ the moon? What happens on the way? [closed]
I have a problem explaining for my students how to get from the earth to the moon? Is there someone who can give a good explanation?
I Think these are words that might be included. Escape velocity, ...
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Can we know where (South, East, West...) the moon will be at a specific time?
Apparently, a few nights from now (more specifically on the night between the 27th and 28th of September this year, nights being Belgian nights), we will have a lunar eclipse.
That's great, and I ...
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Identification of Lunar mare (maria) from a taken picture
I'm in Brisbane right now. I took this picture 15 minutes ago from my balcony.
Could you help me with identification of marked Lunar maria? I cannot compare any of these to this map.
I think 1 is ...
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Where exactly does the Moon flip, given that it appears the other way up in the other hemisphere?
I've read in multiple sources that the Moon appears the other way up in Northern Hemisphere vs Southern Hemisphere. Here is one that explains why: Does the Moon look different in the northern and ...
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How many satellites orbit the Earth? At what rate do they orbit the earth? [closed]
I was looking at a full moon the other night with my telescope and noticed a black dot move across the moon quite rapidly. This happened a few times and others who were with me were able to confirm.
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How did pre-Earth's mass and orbit change at the Moon formation event?
The popular, but still disputable, Moon formation theory is that a pre-Earth was hit by a Mars sized planet. The mass ratio of Earth:Mars:Moon is roughly 100:10:1.
Does this mean that pre-Earth was ...
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Is it just coincidence that the Moon follows the ecliptic?
Or has it been gravitationally steered that way because of how it was formed?
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Supermoon Lunar Eclipse?
I recently read this article: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/supermoon-lunar-eclipse-coming-this-month/ I'm having some trouble understanding how a "supermoon" lunar eclipse is possible.
Judging from ...
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The dark side of the moon [duplicate]
I encountered this statement that the dark side of the moon is hidden from our sights.
Could someone please explain?
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