Is There Life on the Moon?

Many astronomers have visited Earth's Moon. They would leave Earth with the questions, Is there life on the Moon?, Is there liquid water on the Moon?, Would we be able to live there?, and/or Is there an oxygen atmosphere? Last month NASA wanted to find some of these answers. So they shot a rocket into the Moon to see if there was any liquid water. They found out that there was water and that it wasn't a little amount there was actually quite a lot. When they shot the rocket into the Moon, they had found at least 26 gallons of water. The Moon has a weak magnetic field. The Earth itself has a huge magnetic field that makes it live able. The Moon has an oxygen atmosphere. There is enough oxygen to breath, but the Moon has a small mass and low gravity. There is probably life on the Moon. Many astronomers are still trying to find more answers about the Moon.

Europa is a moon of Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. There is liquid water on Europa, that is underneath the ice water. The hot temperature helps melt the ice. Usually when there is water there is life. Any living thing needs water to survive. So I think that there is life on Europa.

Distance and Measures from Earth to Earth's Moon

There are many different ways you could measure distance in space. Some ways are Kilometers, Astronomical Units, and Light Years. There are many other ways but in my science class these are the different measurements we are focusing on. You can use Kilometers (Km) for measuring the diameter and radius of different planets. You can use Astronomical Units (AU) for the distances between different planets. One AU is 150 million Km. An AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth. A Light Year is 9,458,000,000,000 Km or 6,000,000,000,000 miles. You would use a Light Year to find maybe the distance from Earth to the farthest known object in the Universe. Kilometers are the smallest measurement out of the three, then Astronomical Units, and the largest of them all is Light Years.

Earth's Moon is 400,000 Km from the Earth itself. If you were to travel by a Space Shuttle it would take around 15 hours. If you were to take a car to the Moon it would take 4,000 hours and if you were to take a plane to the Moon it would take 400 hours. In that case it would be fastest to travel by Space Shuttle. Humans (Astronauts) have landed on the Moon. The Astronauts have taken the Space Shuttle. They went to find out different facts about the Moon that people didn't know about before.

Earth's Moon Formation

We never really think about how a moon is created. Earth's Moon starts with a Nebula. While it is a Nebula there is hot gas and dust from the supernova explosion, swirling around in space. Then there is the Particles. The Particles come as clouds that cools atoms move more slower and clump together. After being particles there are the Planetesimals. This is when Accretion begins. Small objects collide and stick together to form larger bodies. Then it would be a protoplanet. This is when the body gets bigger and bigger and is gaining gravity to pull in even more material/objects. After that whole process we would get the end product, The Earth's Moon! This is because, this is a impact planet. Debris accrets and forms moons near planets.

Accretion- is when small objects collide and stick together to form larger bodies.

Supernova Explosion- is when fusion ends, matter collapses towards the center, then explodes. The collapse has enough pressure to make big atoms. The explosion out sines entire galaxy.

Fusion- is when Helium and Hydrogen atoms collide and create heat and light.

What is a Planet?

To define a planet it has to orbit a star, have enough gravitational pull to control objects in its neighborhood- it should have a clear orbit, and the planet should be spherical.

Pluto is no longer a planet. Pluto follows under all the criteria of being a planet except the fact that it is not have enough gravitational pull to control objects in its neighborhood. Pluto is considered a dwarf planet. There are many other planets that are dwarf. But because of Pluto not being able to have enough gravitational pull it has made Pluto no longer a planet.
The Earth's Moon is not a planet. It is not a planet because it does not have a gravitational pull and does not orbit stars. Earth's Moon would orbit around Earth.

How Big is the Moon?

The Moon is a big spherical object. It's circumference is 10,916 km in the equatorial distance. The diameter is 5,458 km.

The Sun's equatorial distance of the circumference is 4,379,000 and the diameter is 2,189,500. If you wanted to put Moon's in a Sun then you could fit 401.15 million Moon's in one Sun.

Astronomy Trip to AMNH 10/26/09

Our class went to The American Museum of Natural History.

We first went to the Rose Center where we got to see the Big Bang movie and on the way down we got to see the time line of The Big Bang Theory. We also got to see how much we weighed on each planet. Next we went to The Hall of Meteorites where we got to see pieces of a real meteorite. After that we watched a movie called Journey to the Stars. This movie was about our Earth, the history of the Stars, and The Sun.

There were many things that I learned from this trip. In the Rose Center I learned that on different planets there are different densities that make our weights different. I also learned how our universe was created and that it is still expanding. In The Hall of Meteorites I learned that shooting stars are Meteorites and that when meteorites bang into other planets it leaves new clues into more information on the history of the solar system. One thing that I learned from the movie Journey to the Stars was that the sun is a big star.

I still have some questions about the Moon. One question is, Is the Moon still expanding too? My second question is, Have people that have visited the Moon see water or any different substance that people on Earth don't know about?

Discoveries in the Sky

The Earth's Moon was discovered by the Ancients.

The discovery date is unknown.

It was discovered in Ancient times. You can see the moon in the sky.

Source: Nasa: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Moon&Display=Facts