Moon Facts
- The Moon takes about 27 days (27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.6 seconds) to go all the way around the Earth and return to its starting position.
- A lunar month is the time the moon takes to pass through a complete cycle of its phases and is measured from New Moon to New Moon. A lunar month is about 29.5 days.
- The Moon is 4.5 billion years old.
- Looking down from the north pole we would see the Moon orbiting the Earth counterclockwise from west to east.
- The Moon is about 250,000 miles (384,400 kilometers) from Earth.
- It would take 130 days to go to the moon by car and 13 hours traveling by rocket.
- The moon orbits Earth at an average speed of 2,288 miles per hour (3,683 kilometers per hour).The Moon travels at different speeds during different parts of its orbit. It moves slowest when it is at furthest distance from Earth. The Moon moves fastest in its orbit when it is closest to Earth.
- The Moon has a diameter of 2,000 miles ( 3,476 kilometers).
- The surface of the Moon has about the same area as the continent of Africa.
- The moon has no atmosphere.
- Water was discovered on the moon in November 2009.
- There is no wind or weather on the moon.
- Footprints left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts will remain visible for at least 10 million years because there is no erosion on the Moon.
Sun Facts
- The Sun is the closest star to Earth.
- The Sun rotates once every 27 days.
- The Sun formed over four and a half billion years ago.
- The Sun's diameter is about 870,000 miles wide (110 times wider than Earth's).
- The Sun makes up around 99.86% of the Solar System's mass.
- Light from the Sun reaches Earth in around 8 minutes.
- Much like the earth, the Sun has many different layers that define its structure. Unlike the earth, the Sun is completely gaseous, there is no solid surface on the Sun.
- Every time hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form helium nuclei, which results in a burst of energy, heating up and powering the Sun, the Sun loses a tiny amount of its mass.
- If we could remove the bright, glowing surface of the Sun, we would see nothing other than blackness. Only the Sun's outer surface shines brightly. The inside of the Sun is complete darkness.
- If you could take a journey in an normal airliner flying at its normal speed (about 644 km an hour) traveling from Earth to the Sun, it would take 20 years to reach your destination, and that's without stopping.
- The Sun is almost half-way through its life, and at its most stable point in its lifetime. Eventually, it will increase in size, eating up the Inner Planets and heating up the Outer Planets and their moons, before collapsing to become a very small White Dwarf.
- It takes the Sun 225–250 million years to orbit the center of the Milky Way.
- The Earth could fit inside the Sun approximately 1 million times
Earth Facts
- Mother Earth has a generous waistline: At the equator, the circumference of the globe is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers).
- Depending on where you are on the globe, you could be spinning through space at just over 1,000 miles per hour. People on the equator move the fastest, while someone standing on the North or South pole would be perfectly still.
- The Earth is also moving around the sun at 67,000 miles (107,826 km) per hour.
- Earth is about 4.54 billion years old.
- Chemical Composition of the Earth: 34.6% Iron, 29.5% Oxygen, 15.2% Silicon, 12.7% Magnesium, 2.4% Nickel, 1.9% Sulfur, and 0.05% Titanium.
- Earth is the only planet in the Solar System to have water in its three states of matter: as a solid (ice), a liquid (sea, rain, etc.) and as a gas (clouds).
- Earth is almost five billion years old, although life (resembling life as we know it) has only existed on the planet for the last 150 million to 200 million years.
- Earth is gradually slowing down. Every few years, an extra second is added to make up for lost time. Millions of years ago, a day on Earth will have been 20 hours long. It is believed that, in millions of years time, a day on Earth will be 27 hours long.
- Earth is the only planet in the Solar System not to be named after a mythical God.
- Despite being called Earth, only 29% of the surface is actually 'earth.' The rest of the planet's surface (71%) is made up of water.
- From a distance, Earth would be the brightest of the planets. This is because sunlight is reflected off the planet's water.
- Earth is the only planet in the Solar System known to be geologically active, with Earthquakes and volcanoes forming the landscape, replenishing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and erasing impact craters from meteors.
- The length of time it takes for Earth to orbit the Sun is 365 and a quarter days. To make up this extra quarter which isn't counted at the end of a year, we have an extra day every four years on 29th February. The next Leap Year will be in 2016.
How does Earth's rotation on axis create day & night?
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/6/8/17685817/7078362.gif)
Answer: Day and night is caused by the rotation of the Earth about its axis. At any
given time, the half facing the Sun will be shined upon while the other half
will have no light. Places in the former will have day while places in the latter will have night. When the Earth rotates one side is hitting the sun which cause Day while the other side has no sunlight shining on it so it causes night.
given time, the half facing the Sun will be shined upon while the other half
will have no light. Places in the former will have day while places in the latter will have night. When the Earth rotates one side is hitting the sun which cause Day while the other side has no sunlight shining on it so it causes night.