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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Moon - our nearest neighbour The silvery moon which makes its appearance in the night is fascinating. Even poets cannot resist its charm...
Can anyone really jump over the Moon? The answer is no, but we can certainly go to the Moon with the help of specially designed spacecraft such as the Apollo rockets. The Moon is our nearest neighbour and our only natural satellite. It is a huge ball of rock about 3476 km (2160 miles) in diameter (That is 1/4 of Earth) which orbits the Earth once in 27 1/3 days. At night, the sunlight reflected from its surface shines palely down upon us. Average distance from the Earth is 384,402 km (238,856 miles). In ancient days, some worshipped the Moon while some believed too much moonlight caused people to go mad. In fact the word 'lunacy' which means madness, comes from the word 'luna' which is the Latin word for Moon. Today telescopes, lunar probes and manned landings have revealed much about the Moon. We know it is a dead world because there is no atmosphere, water or life on the Moon.
The bright areas are highlands with huge mountain ranges and deep craters. Their rocks are even older than those of the lunar 'seas' and are made of rock chips which are stuck together. There are many craters in the Moon, some are tiny and some are huge. Some of these craters are volcanic. All the large craters have been made by meteorites that struck the surface. Studies carried out on the Moon have revealed that several thousand moonquakes happen every year. They seem to start well below the surface. Other studies hint that like the Earth, the Moon has a crust, a mantle and a core. The far side of the Moon cannot be seen from Earth but space probes orbiting the Moon have been successful in taking photographs of it. These reveal that unlike the near side, the far side lacks big, low-lying plains the astronomers call 'seas'. Some people hope that one day astronauts may be able to mine minerals upon the Moon but many scientists believe the cost will be too high. They see the Moon as a dead world too far away in space to help us. Yet, the Moon has always affected people - by its monthly path around the Earth, and also by helping to create tides. We will look into the Waxing Moon - or the Moon's monthly tour around the Earth on a later date. ###### The Soyuz is finally launched
The Soyuz will carry Russian Cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov (Flight
Engineer and Soyuz Commander), Yuri Shargin (Russian Space Forces) and US
astronaut The Soyuz crew will replace the expedition 9 crew, Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke. Shargin who conducted 8 days of scientific experiments is due to return to Earth with Padalka and Fincke today! |
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Many lovely poems, stories and even nursery rhymes refer to this huge
silvery ball in the sky we call the Moon. Remember the nursery rhyme 'Hey
diddle diddle' where the cow jumped over the Moon?
When you look up at the Moon on a clear night you will notice that some
parts are dark and others are pale. The dark areas which are fairly smooth
are called 'seas' by astronomers. But they are really bone-dry plains.
Some are almost round while others have ragged edges. These areas have
floors of lava that welled up from inside the Moon.
The much awaited launch of the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft took place on
October 14 from the launch pad at the Russian based Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan amidst much excitement.
Leroy Chiao (Expedition Commander and NASA Science Officer) on a
six-month scientific experiments mission to the International Space
Station (ISS).
