ASTR 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Tidal Locking, Eugene Cernan, Nuclear Weapon
1 Aug 2017
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Document Summary
The moon (or luna) is the earth"s only natural satellite and was formed 4. 6 billion years ago around some 30 50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The moon is in synchronous rotation with earth meaning the same side is always facing the earth. The first unmanned mission to the moon was in 1959 by the soviet lunar program with the first manned landing being apollo 11 in 1969. The dark side of the moon is a myth. Maybe you got it from the horrible transformers movie: dark side of the moon. sorry to disappoint you, but that is fake. In reality both sides of the moon see the same amount of sunlight however only one face of the moon is ever seen from earth. This is because the moon rotates around on its own axis in exactly the same time it takes to orbit the earth, meaning the same side is always facing the earth.
