Luna, Our Moon

• Galileo was first to discover large mountains among craters called lunar highlands

• Dark regions, known as maria, are a result of lava cooling in low areas

Moon’s Rotation and Revolution

• rotation and revolution occur once every 27.3 days

• due to rotation and revolution being the same speed, one side of the moon is always visible and the other side is never seen

• moonlight is actually reflected sunlight

Tides

• Moon’s gravity pulls on Earth, with places on Earth closer to the moon results in harder pulling

• Bulges occur on the sides of Earth closet to and farthest from moon (high tides)

• As the Earth rotates, different areas experience high and low tides

Sun’s Effect on Tides

• Sun has about ½ tide generating force as Moon

• When Sun, Moon, and Earth are aligned, high tides are higher and low tides are lower (spring tide)

• When Sun, Moon, and Earth are at 90 degrees, high tide lower and low tide higher (neap tide)