[Music]
over 150 moons orbit the solar system’s
planets and one of those moons calls
earth home the moon was formed about 4.5
billion years ago when according to one
theory the earth slammed into another
early planet debris from this collision
began to orbit Earth and accumulated
warming today’s moon the moon is the
fifth largest natural satellite in the
solar system with a diameter just under
the width of China it’s composed of an
iron-rich core plus a mantle and crust
containing minerals made of magnesium
oxygen and silicon the moon’s surface
was once geologically active and covered
in an ocean of magma but today apart
from traces of water ice the surface is
completely covered in dust and rocky
debris countless craters dot the moon’s
surface
each formed by objects such as
meteoroids comets and asteroids crashing
onto the moon the largest crater the
South Pole Aitken Basin spans across a
quarter of the moon’s surface and is
nearly deep enough to fit Mount Everest
inside
the moon orbits our planet at an average
distance of 30 Earth’s it rotates at the
same rate that it revolves so as it
revolves around our planet the same side
of the Moon faces the earth at all times
from the Earth’s surface
we can observe eight distinct
traditionally recognized stages of the
moon’s illumination called lunar phases
they have been observed for thousands of
years and even provided the basis for
the earliest calendars for most of human
history the moon could only be studied
from afar but on July 20th 1969 humans
were able to close that distance with
the American spaceflight mission Apollo
11 it placed humans on the moon
for the very first time bringing our
understanding of Earth’s only natural
satellite one step closer [Music]
over 150 moons orbit the solar system’s
planets and one of those moons calls
earth home the moon was formed about 4.5
billion years ago when according to one
theory the earth slammed into another
early planet debris from this collision
began to orbit Earth and accumulated
warming today’s moon the moon is the
fifth largest natural satellite in the
solar system with a diameter just under
the width of China it’s composed of an
iron-rich core plus a mantle and crust
containing minerals made of magnesium
oxygen and silicon the moon’s surface
was once geologically active and covered
in an ocean of magma but today apart
from traces of water ice the surface is
completely covered in dust and rocky
debris countless craters dot the moon’s
surface
each formed by objects such as
meteoroids comets and asteroids crashing
onto the moon the largest crater the
South Pole Aitken Basin spans across a
quarter of the moon’s surface and is
nearly deep enough to fit Mount Everest
inside
the moon orbits our planet at an average
distance of 30 Earth’s it rotates at the
same rate that it revolves so as it
revolves around our planet the same side
of the Moon faces the earth at all times
from the Earth’s surface
we can observe eight distinct
traditionally recognized stages of the
moon’s illumination called lunar phases
they have been observed for thousands of
years and even provided the basis for
the earliest calendars for most of human
history the moon could only be studied
from afar but on July 20th 1969 humans
were able to close that distance with
the American spaceflight mission Apollo
11 it placed humans on the moon
for the very first time bringing our
understanding of Earth’s only natural
satellite one step closer [Music]
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