Why can't you see the other side of the moon? Why

Everything about everything. Volume 3 Likum Arkady

Why do we only see one side of the moon?

Ever since man appeared on Earth, the Moon has been a mystery to him. In ancient times, people worshiped the moon, considering her the goddess of the night. Today, however, we know much more about what it really is. We can even see the "reverse", or, as it is also called, "dark" side of the Moon in photographs taken by Soviet and American scientists. Why can't we look at reverse side moon from earth? The fact is that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth, that is, a celestial body smaller than our planet, revolving around it. One complete orbit of the Moon in orbit around the Earth is approximately 29.5 days.

It is remarkable that the Moon rotates around its axis in the same time. That is why we can see only one side of it from the Earth. To better understand how this happens, try the following experiment. Take an apple or orange and draw a line on it dividing it into two halves. Imagine that this is the moon. Then stretch out a clenched fist in front of you, which should represent the Earth. Now turn the "Moon" with one side to the "Earth". Continuing to keep the "Moon" facing the "Earth" with the same side, make it complete a revolution around the "Earth". You will see that the "Moon" will turn around its axis, and from the "Earth" only one side of it will still be visible.

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The constant companion of our planet not only makes you think about the eternal, but also throws food for thought. Why do we see only one side of the Moon if all celestial bodies rotate around their own axis? Maybe this is part of some conspiracy, and on the back of the satellite there is some kind of secret alien base or traces of colonization by an ancient civilization?

How did the moon appear?

The moon is a massive body that has fallen into the zone of action of the Earth's gravity. Exists several theories of its origin:

  • It was captured by gravity several billion years ago.
  • It was formed as a result of the union of several hundred meteorites that fell under the influence of gravity.
  • It is a part of the earth's crust that broke away as a result of a collision with a meteorite.

The most popular theory today is that once there was a collision of the Earth and a small planet with an unstable orbit.

According to another version, the culprit of the cataclysm is a meteorite that passed "on a tangent" and directly beat off part of the earth's crust.

In the first case, the Moon must be part of this same planet. In the second - part of the surface of our planet, under the influence of centrifugal force formed into a sphere.

The whole problem lies in the fact that we are talking about events that took place billions of years ago. Now we cannot tell with certainty about the events of a thousand years ago, what can we say about such colossal terms.

Why doesn't the moon fall to earth?

The moon simultaneously revolves around the earth and around its own orbit. As a result, two forces interact:

Thanks to the interaction of two forces, our eternal companion"can't fly away from us. But it also cannot fall to the surface of the planet, for exactly the same reasons.

If one day this state of equilibrium is disturbed, a terrible cataclysm can occur. But we are talking about cosmic quantities, not a single person is able to influence them. In any case, at the current level of development of science.

Thanks to this pleasant coincidence, the Earth has a satellite. And thanks to another coincidence, in the form of an identical period of rotation around the planet and around its axis, we only see the "bright" side of the moon.

Why does the moon glow at night?

But why is the side facing us always “bright”? After all, the moon does not have its own luminary that would illuminate it according to some kind of schedule.

And to delve into the further description, it is better recall the course of school physics:

  1. The sun's rays can reflect off surfaces.
  2. After reflection, the angle of propagation of the rays changes.
  3. Despite contact with the surface, the reflected light travels further.
  4. The ability to reflect depends on the number of rays that continue their path.

At night, the Earth turns to the Sun on the other side, so it gets dark in our hemisphere. But nothing prevents the Moon from contacting the nearest star.

Direct sunlight hits its surface. Part of it remains there, their energy is spent on heating the lunar soil. No wonder its temperature can exceed a hundred degrees.

But a small part of the rays is reflected from the surface and directed in our direction. Thanks to this phenomenon, there is another source of light in the night sky.

Why don't they fly to the moon anymore?

The second half of the last century was marked by real hysteria, in which the two powers were drawn. It's about "lunar race" when Americans and Soviet citizens aspired to the same goal - to be the first to land on the moon.

The United States unconditionally won this competition, which is more offensive - not a single Soviet cosmonaut ever set foot on the surface of our satellite. This is despite the fact that humanity first saw the "dark side" precisely thanks to the apparatus made and launched in the Union.

But decades go by, and no one really aspires to the moon anymore.

This is motivated by a number of reasons:

  • Lack of funding.
  • The main experiments and studies have already been carried out.
  • For the coming decades, there is enough surface data to be processed.
  • Flights are extremely expensive.
  • There is no one else to compete with and thus prove their superiority.

Some of the arguments sound pretty plausible. But, on the other hand, more than one, not even two expeditions were sent to the Moon. There were more. And then everything stopped. And no other country has tried to land to get another reason for pride.

Silent consent, it seems that all countries of the world were able to agree on one issue. Maybe somewhere there, at a distance of about 300 thousand kilometers, there really was a contact with something unknown and humanity was hinted opaquely what further research is fraught with?

These are just conspiracy theories, but after all, after a jerk to the side, all countries “turned on the back” and stopped developing their space programs so actively. Perhaps we are not really welcome there.

The invisible side of the moon

The lunar cycle is 28 days, almost everyone remembers this. The problem is that both periods of rotation fit in 28 days - around the Earth and its own axis. Such a coincidence, but because of it, we are forced to constantly observe only one half of the celestial body.

Due to the current situation, a person will never be able to see the “dark side” while on the surface of the Earth. Actually, it sounds like a challenge. And it will be nice to know that humanity passed this test with dignity.

Thanks to unmanned expeditions, we have photographs and detailed maps of that “invisible” half. From the point of view of “science for the sake of science”, the achievement is unprecedented, but if you think about practical application received data.

True, there is one positive thing. We made sure that an alien space fleet was not lurking behind the Moon, that its surface was not dotted with someone's bases. Such is the consolation for paranoids and dreamers.

Above natural phenomena I'm either too lazy to think about it, or I don't have time for it. And why we see only one side of the Moon, and because of what the seasons change - this was all once explained, but too long ago.

Video about the position and rotation of the moon

After watching this video, it will become clear to you why the Moon always faces the earth with the same side:

During the movement of the earth satellite along its orbit in the first quarter of the lunar cycle, the apparent distance of the Moon from the Sun begins to develop. A week after the onset of the new moon, the distance from the Moon to the Sun becomes exactly the same as the distance from the Sun to the Earth. At such a moment, a quarter of the lunar disk becomes visible. Further, the distance between the Sun and the satellite continues to grow, which is called the second quarter of the lunar cycle. At this point, the Moon is at its farthest point in its orbit from the Sun. Her phase at this point will be called the full moon.

In the third quarter of the lunar cycle, the satellite begins its reverse movement relative to the Sun, approaching it. again reduced to the size of a quarter of the disk. The lunar cycle ends with the satellite returning to its original position between the Sun and the Earth. At this moment, the consecrated part of the Moon completely ceases to be visible to the inhabitants.

In the first part of its cycle, the Moon appears above the horizon, along with the rising Sun, is at its zenith by noon and in the visible zone throughout the day until sunset. Such a picture is usually observed in and.

Thus, each appearance of the lunar disk depends on the phase in which the celestial body is at one time or another. In this regard, such concepts as the growing moon, as well as the blue moon, appeared.

Man is drawn to the unknown, the mysterious, the unknown. One of these mysteries can be considered the far side of the moon. A unique phenomenon in the solar system - an earthly observer sees only one and at a certain time a "piece" of the other side of the only natural satellite of the Earth.

Instruction

The phenomenon, which many consider mysterious (only one lunar hemisphere is visible from Earth), is quite understandable. This is due to the synchronization of the earth and lunar period of revolution. Perhaps the Moon once revolved around the Earth differently. But as a result of the interaction over millions of years, the earth's gravity had a significant impact on the period of revolution of its satellite. Thus it turned out that the Moon makes a full revolution around its axis in the same time as around the Earth.

The Moon floats high in the sky, bright, beautiful, with dark spots on a shiny disk. On a full moon, it resembles someone's round, good-natured, slightly mocking face. We always see her like this. And before us, for thousands of years, people looked at the exact same Moon and distributed themselves on it in the same way. dark spots that make it look like a human face. For thousands of years, people have been observing the changes in her bright face - from the thin sickle of a newborn month to the full radiance of her disk. Meanwhile, the Moon is a ball, the same as other planets, including our Earth, on which we live. But the moon never shows us its other side, we don't see it. Why?

The moon rotates on its axis and at the same time makes its way around the earth, because it is a satellite of the earth.

In twenty-nine and a half days, it makes its revolution around the Earth, and ... it takes the same amount of time to turn around its axis - it makes this revolution so slowly. And that's the whole point. That is why we always see only one side of it.

But how does it happen anyway? To make this clearer to you, let's do a little experiment. Take some small table (if there is no table - a chair or something else that is more convenient for you, what will be at hand). This chair will be an imaginary Earth, and you yourself will be the Moon, which wraps around the Earth. Start moving around the table, staying facing it all the time. At the beginning of your movement, for example, you saw a window in front of you, but then, as you make your circle around the table (that is, the Earth), this window will be behind you, and only at the end of the path you will see it again . This will only confirm that you have turned not only around the table, but also around yourself, your axis.

So is the Moon. It makes a revolution around the Earth and at the same time around its own axis.

But everyone now knows that we still saw the far side of the moon! How did it happen? Do you remember? .. However, no, you don’t remember this: in those years you were still too small! And this happened in 1959, when Soviet scientists launched an automatic station towards the Moon, which flew around our satellite and transmitted images from its other side to us on Earth. And people all over the world saw the far side of the moon for the first time!

And that's not all. A few years later, Soviet scientists again sent an automatic station towards the Moon, and this time again photographs were taken and sent to Earth. Thanks to the images, scientists then compiled the first map of both sides of the lunar surface, and then a new color map of the Moon with lunar seas, mountain ranges, the most important peaks, ring crater mountains, circuses.

While I was writing these pages, one piece of news followed another. Before I had time to tell you about the new color map, an amazing event took place: in February 1966, the world's first automatic station, our Soviet one, landed on the Earth's satellite! She made, as scientists say, a soft landing - this means that she landed on the moon smoothly, without breaking the equipment.

Having gently landed on the moon, the automatic station immediately began to work hard - it sent more and more pictures of the lunar surface, and these pictures were taken at close range. But this is extremely important! The images were large, accurate: scientists simply pounced on these amazing documents, carefully examined them; now they saw what the surface of the moon is like, what is on it, asserted or, on the contrary, changed their points of view about the lunar surface.

"Luna-9" made a soft landing on our satellite - the Moon. And shortly after that, in March 1966, Luna 10 was launched.

She began to fly around the Moon, that is, she became her artificial satellite, and the instruments of Luna-10 sent messages to Earth that scientific researchers needed in order to better know our celestial neighbor.

"Luna-10" made its endless flight around the Moon, so close, familiar, and in the early days, the whole world could hear the melody of the communist anthem "The Internationale" coming from it.

After "Luna-10" there were also "Luna-11", and "Luna-12", and "Luna-14", and "Luna-16" ... All the time our messengers soar into outer space, they pave the first paths to our heavenly neighbor. And always the most difficult and most important thing is what is done for the first time!

However, the news recent years amazing! American astronauts, on the Apollo 11 spacecraft, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins were the first to fly to the moon in July 1969, two of them, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, set foot on its surface, the third, Michael Collins, was waiting them by making circles around the moon.

The names of these cosmonauts will go down in history in the same way as the name of our glorious Gagarin, who was the first to go into space and see our planet Earth from the outside.

And a very special place in the study of our celestial neighbor is occupied by the amazing apparatus "Lunokhod-1", delivered to the Moon in November 1970. He worked hard there, doing the work of exploring the lunar surface for a man. This amazing apparatus worked only on a lunar day, when it could charge its batteries from the energy of the sun. BUT moonlit night oh he was resting, as they affectionately said about him: he was sleeping.

Really, it all looks like a fairy tale.

And it may well happen that during the time this book is being printed, new amazing events will occur and we will have to expand this chapter, although at the beginning we were going to tell only about one thing: why we do not see the far side of the moon.

Why do we only see one side of the moon?

The Moon floats high in the sky, bright, beautiful, with dark spots on a shiny disk. On a full moon, it resembles someone's round, good-natured, slightly mocking face. We always see her like this. And before us, for thousands of years, people looked at the exact same Moon and dark spots were distributed on it in the same way, which make it look like a human face. For thousands of years, people have been observing the changes in her bright face - from the thin sickle of a newborn month to the full radiance of her disk. Meanwhile, the Moon is a ball, the same as other planets, including our Earth, on which we live. But the moon never shows us its other side, we don't see it. Why?

The moon rotates on its axis and at the same time makes its way around the earth, because it is a satellite of the earth.

In twenty-nine and a half days, it makes its revolution around the Earth, and ... it takes the same amount of time to turn around its axis - it makes this revolution so slowly. And that's the whole point. That is why we always see only one side of it.

But how does it happen anyway? To make this clearer to you, let's do a little experiment. Take some small table (if there is no table - a chair or something else that is more convenient for you, what will be at hand). This chair will be an imaginary Earth, and you yourself will be the Moon, which wraps around the Earth. Start moving around the table, staying facing it all the time. At the beginning of your movement, for example, you saw a window in front of you, but then, as you make your circle around the table (that is, the Earth), this window will be behind you, and only at the end of the path you will see it again . This will only confirm that you have turned not only around the table, but also around yourself, your axis.

So is the Moon. It makes a revolution around the Earth and at the same time around its own axis.

But everyone now knows that we still saw the far side of the moon! How did it happen? Do you remember? .. However, no, you don’t remember this: in those years you were still too small! And this happened in 1959, when Soviet scientists launched an automatic station towards the Moon, which flew around our satellite and transmitted images from its other side to us on Earth. And people all over the world saw the far side of the moon for the first time!

And that's not all. A few years later, Soviet scientists again sent an automatic station towards the Moon, and this time again photographs were taken and sent to Earth. Thanks to the images, scientists then compiled the first map of both sides of the lunar surface, and then a new color map of the Moon with lunar seas, mountain ranges, the most important peaks, ring crater mountains, circuses.

While I was writing these pages, one piece of news followed another. Before I had time to tell you about the new color map, an amazing event took place: in February 1966, the world's first automatic station, our Soviet one, landed on the Earth's satellite! She made, as scientists say, a soft landing - this means that she landed on the moon smoothly, without breaking the equipment.

Having gently landed on the moon, the automatic station immediately began to work hard - it sent more and more pictures of the lunar surface, and these pictures were taken at close range. But this is extremely important! The images were large, accurate: scientists simply pounced on these amazing documents, carefully examined them; now they saw what the surface of the moon is like, what is on it, asserted or, on the contrary, changed their points of view about the lunar surface.

"Luna-9" made a soft landing on our satellite - the Moon. And shortly after that, in March 1966, Luna 10 was launched.

She began to make flights around the Moon, that is, she became her artificial satellite, and the instruments of Luna-10 sent messages to Earth that scientific researchers needed in order to better know our celestial neighbor.

"Luna-10" made its endless flight around the Moon, so close, familiar, and in the early days, the whole world could hear the melody of the Communist anthem "The Internationale" coming from it.

After "Luna-10" there were also "Luna-11", and "Luna-12", and "Luna-14", and "Luna-16" ... All the time our messengers soar into outer space, they pave the first paths to our heavenly neighbor. And always the most difficult and most important thing is what is done for the first time!

However, the news of recent years is amazing! American astronauts, on the Apollo 11 spacecraft, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins were the first to fly to the moon in July 1969, two of them, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, set foot on its surface, the third, Michael Collins, was waiting them by making circles around the moon.

The names of these cosmonauts will go down in history in the same way as the name of our glorious Gagarin, who was the first to go into space and see our planet Earth from the outside.

And a very special place in the study of our celestial neighbor is occupied by the amazing apparatus "Lunokhod-1", delivered to the Moon in November 1970. He worked hard there, doing the work of exploring the lunar surface for a man. This amazing apparatus worked only on a lunar day, when it could charge its batteries from the energy of the sun. And on a moonlit night, he rested, as they affectionately said about him: he slept.

Really, it all looks like a fairy tale.

And it may well happen that during the time this book is being printed, new amazing events will occur and we will have to expand this chapter, although at the beginning we were going to tell only about one thing: why we do not see the far side of the moon.

Falling stars

I don’t know about you, but I have always loved looking at the sky on quiet, cloudless evenings. I loved to look for constellations, some were difficult to find, and others were easy, such as Ursa Major or Cassiopeia.

On dark August nights, when the sky turns completely black, a wide bright road of stars is clearly visible - the Milky Way. I stood with my head thrown back for a long time, so that my neck ached, and admired the dark sky, the stars and the silver moon.

But… what is it? A fiery dot traced the sky and went out. "A star has fallen," say those who saw it.

Star? No, it's something completely different, because the stars don't fall. These are small pebbles, dust particles that rush in outer space and are attracted by the Earth with terrible speed, fly into the atmosphere and burn up! We see this short flash and say: the star has fallen!

Little heavenly guests that burn up somewhere very high above the Earth are called meteors.

In August, October and November, the Earth, during its journey around the Sun, encounters especially a lot of cosmic dust, clouds, and pebbles. That is why at this time you can often see fiery flashes in the sky. This means that the Earth has met on its way a whole swarm of meteors and "space debris", and it flares up, flying into our atmosphere.

It happens that dozens of meteors immediately flash in the sky and the "star shower" continues until the Earth passes the meteor shower.

Starry rain fell over Moscow more than twenty years ago, in 1946. Only we could not observe it, because the sky was covered with clouds. It was very annoying!

And there are not rains, but simply star showers! But this happens very rarely. At the end of the last century, several such showers were shed, they could be observed both in the sky of America and over Europe. It was a magnificent fireworks display arranged by nature itself.

Star showers, and especially star showers, are an exceptional phenomenon. You can live your life and not see them. On the other hand, we can always observe lonely fiery dots, flashing and fading in the dark August sky, lonely "shooting stars". Just remember: these are not stars - stars never fall! This is space dust. Dust particles flare up from strong air resistance when they fly into the earth's atmosphere. Flash on and off!

Why is it day and night?

I woke up at eight o'clock. Outside the window - the pace of the night! I remembered that today is exactly December 22, the day of the winter solstice, when we, in the Northern Hemisphere, have the longest night of the year and the shortest day.

That year there was no snow for a long time, or rather, it was, only it didn’t lie for a long time - it melted. Mud, puddles, piercing wind and darkness - at four o'clock in the afternoon it is already necessary to turn on the light!

I do not like this time of the year, the time of a very late, protracted autumn, and I always look forward to the cherished December 22, when the sun, as they say, turns to summer, and winter to frost. After the winter solstice, the days begin to gradually arrive, and the night shortens, at first for some minute, and you look - in a month and an hour will increase. But winter comes into its own: frosts crackle, snow falls, and twilight turns blue, almost purple ...

Day and night... Change of light and darkness... The most ordinary, most permanent, unchanging phenomenon of nature, it goes on forever in a routine. But why is this happening?

Once upon a time, in ancient times, not only children, but also adults asked themselves this question and did not find the right answer to it. Thousands of years passed before man understood and explained this phenomenon.