The Earth's natural satellite is the Moon, a non-luminous body that reflects sunlight.

The study of the Moon began in 1959, when the Soviet Luna 2 spacecraft first landed on the Moon, and the Luna 3 spacecraft first took pictures of the far side of the Moon from space.

In 1966, Luna 9 landed on the Moon and established a solid soil structure.

The first people to walk on the moon were Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. This happened on July 21, 1969. Soviet scientists for further study of the Moon preferred to use automatic vehicles - lunar rovers.

General characteristics of the Moon

Average distance from Earth, km
A. e.	363 104 0,0024
A. e.	405 696 0,0027
Average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon, km
The inclination of the orbit to the plane of its orbit
Average orbital speed	1,022
Average radius of the Moon, km
Weight, kg
Equatorial radius, km
Polar radius, km
Average density, g/cm 3
Tilt to the equator, degrees.

The mass of the Moon is 1/81 of the mass of the Earth. The position of the Moon in orbit corresponds to one or another phase (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Moon phases

Moon phases- various positions relative to the Sun - new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter. During a full moon, the illuminated disk of the Moon is visible, since the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth. During the new moon, the Moon is on the side of the Sun, so the side of the Moon facing the Earth is not illuminated.

The Moon always faces the Earth with one side.

The line that separates the illuminated part of the Moon from the unlit part is called terminator.

In the first quarter, the Moon is visible at an angular distance of 90" from the Sun, and the sun's rays illuminate only the right half of the Moon facing us. In other phases, the Moon is visible to us in the form of a crescent. Therefore, in order to distinguish the growing Moon from the old one, we must remember: the old Moon resembles the letter “C”, and if the Moon is waxing, then you can mentally draw a vertical line in front of the Moon and you will get the letter “P”.

Due to the proximity of the Moon to the Earth and its large mass, they form the Earth-Moon system. The Moon and Earth rotate around their axes in the same direction. The plane of the Moon's orbit is inclined to the plane of the Earth's orbit at an angle of 5°9".

The intersection of the orbits of the Earth and the Moon is called nodes of the lunar orbit.

Sidereal(from Latin sideris - star) month is the period of rotation of the Earth around its axis and the same position of the Moon on the celestial sphere in relation to the stars. It is 27.3 Earth days.

Synodic(from the Greek synod - connection) a month is the period of complete change of lunar phases, i.e. the period of the Moon returning to its original position relative to the Moon and the Sun (for example, from new moon to new moon). It averages 29.5 Earth days. The synodic month is two days longer than the sidereal month, since the Earth and Moon rotate around their axes in the same direction.

The gravity on the Moon is 6 times less than the gravity on Earth.

The relief of the Earth's satellite is well studied. The visible dark areas on the surface of the Moon are called “seas” - these are vast waterless lowland plains (the largest is “Oksan Bur”), and the light areas are called “continents” - these are mountainous, elevated areas. The main planetary structures of the lunar surface are ring craters with a diameter of up to 20-30 km and multi-ring circuses with a diameter of 200 to 1000 km.

The origin of ring structures is different: meteorite, volcanic and shock-explosive. In addition, there are cracks, shifts, domes and fault systems on the surface of the Moon.

Studies by the Luna-16, Luna-20, and Luna-24 spacecraft have shown that the surface clastic rocks of the Moon are similar to terrestrial igneous rocks - basalts.

The meaning of the Moon in the life of the Earth

Although the mass of the Moon is 27 million times less than the mass of the Sun, it is 374 times closer to the Earth and has a strong influence on the planet, causing rising tides in some places and low tides in others. This happens every 12 hours 25 minutes, since the Moon makes a full revolution around the Earth in 24 hours 50 minutes.

Due to the gravitational influence of the Moon and the Sun on the Earth, ebb and flow(Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Scheme of the occurrence of ebbs and flows on Earth

The most distinct and important in their consequences are tidal phenomena in the wave shell. They represent periodic rises and falls in the level of oceans and seas, caused by the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun (2.2 times less than the lunar one).

In the atmosphere, tidal phenomena manifest themselves in semidiurnal changes in atmospheric pressure, and in the earth's crust - in the deformation of the solid matter of the Earth.

On Earth, there are 2 high tides at the point closest and farthest from the Moon and 2 low tides at points located at an angular distance of 90° from the Moon-Earth line. Highlight cygisian tides, which occur on new and full moons and quadrature- in the first and last quarter.

In the open ocean, tidal movements are small. Water level fluctuations reach 0.5-1 m. In the inland seas (Black, Baltic, etc.) they are almost not felt. However, depending on the geographic latitude and the contours of the coastline of the continents (especially in narrow bays), water during high tides can rise up to 18 m (Bay of Fundy in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North America), 13 m on the western coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In this case, tidal currents are formed.

The main significance of tidal waves is that, moving from east to west following the apparent movement of the Moon, they slow down the axial rotation of the Earth and lengthen the day, change the figure of the Earth by reducing polar compression, cause pulsation of the Earth’s shells, vertical displacements of the earth’s surface, semidiurnal changes in atmospheric pressure change the conditions of organic life in the coastal parts of the World Ocean and, finally, affect the economic activities of coastal countries. Sea vessels can only enter a number of ports at high tide.

After a certain period of time on Earth they repeat solar and lunar eclipses. They can be seen when the Sun, Earth and Moon are on the same line.

Eclipse- an astronomical situation in which one celestial body blocks the light from another celestial body.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the observer and the Sun and blocks it. Since the Moon before an eclipse faces us with its unlit side, there is always a new moon before an eclipse, i.e. the Moon is not visible. It seems that the Sun is covered by a black disk; an observer from Earth sees this phenomenon as a solar eclipse (Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Solar eclipse (the relative sizes of the bodies and the distances between them are relative)

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon, while aligned with the Sun and Earth, falls into the cone-shaped shadow cast by the Earth. The diameter of the Earth's shadow spot is equal to the minimum distance of the Moon from the Earth - 363,000 km, which is about 2.5 times the diameter of the Moon, so the Moon can be completely obscured (see Fig. 3).

Lunar rhythms are repeated changes in the intensity and nature of biological processes. There are lunar-monthly (29.4 days) and lunar-diurnal (24.8 hours) rhythms. Many animals and plants reproduce at a certain phase of the lunar cycle. Lunar rhythms are characteristic of many marine animals and plants of the coastal zone. Thus, people have noticed changes in their well-being depending on the phases of the lunar cycle.

Be extremely careful, apparently we are destined to live in an extraordinary period of time associated with the inversion of the Earth’s magnetic field, and a complex of inversions of all objects in the solar system. A necessary process that ensures the existence of life on Earth, a process that stimulates the evolution of the entire biosphere. All information resources deliberately provide false information about this process and by all means hide the algorithm of the inversions of the precession cycle of the Solar system relative to the Zodiac during the period of the Plotonic year. The chronology systems were deliberately distorted, and many dates for the “end of the world” were deliberately promoted to create a skeptical majority opinion on this topic. A negative image of the “end of the world” was deliberately created for this process, which is extremely necessary for the existence of the biosphere. The global scenario of the third world war with the use of local nuclear strikes is deliberately being promoted, thereby providing the following legend, the future concealment of the main reason for the displacement of the magnetic poles with their future location along the line of the modern equator, with the coordinates of the first post-inversion second Z 1.3 deg. S.W. 58.87 gr. W. D, N 1.3 gr. S.W. 121.13 gr. V.D. From the moment the Solar System enters the Age of Aquarius, a 90 degree inversion of the geomagnetic field takes place relative to the original coordinates of the poles of the previous inversion. The transition to the previous two eras was accompanied by 30 degree inversions, the two subsequent eras of Capricorn and Sagittarius will also be accompanied by 30 degree inversions, the subsequent era of Scorpio will again be accompanied by a 90 degree inversion. With each inversion, the poles describe sinusoidal trajectories of one full period to future coordinates within one day. Thus, in the pricesian cycle during the Platonic year there are four 90 degree inversions and eight 30 degree inversions. Accordingly, each of them is accompanied by global events and global changes in both climate and landscape, as well as changes in the physical world and its properties, which actually provokes the disappearance of previous civilizations and the emergence of new ones. Ninety-degree inversions are accompanied by an equally important event, such as the crossing of the solar equator of one of the planets in the solar system, the existence of which is also deliberately hidden by the media and official natural sciences. The only planet that has the property of crossing the solar equator “Nibiru, aka Charon, aka Anubis”, crossing the equatorial structure of the Sun, passes into the visible range, which is actually the secret of its appearance and disappearance in the sky. And this is only a small part of the hidden and distorted information. The model of the Solar system is also deliberately distorted; in reality, it does not have a disk shape, but an hourglass shape where the center is the Sun; its equatorial structure is located perpendicular to the conical orbits of the planets in both the northern and southern hemispheres of its own magnetosphere. Accordingly, on the other side of the solar equator there is a similar planetary system with inversely proportional rotation cycles and all ongoing processes. And one planet directly in the equatorial structure of the Sun, where the equatorial structure itself performs the function of delimiting the range visible to humans. It was the function of delimiting the visible range of the solar equator that provided natural science with the opportunity to hide and distort such significant information. An equally important process is happening today with the Earth’s magnetosphere, associated with a drop in the intensity of all components of the magnetic field and their tendency to zero, a sure sign of an imminent inversion. The principle of pre-inversion zeroing is necessary for the revival of the next post-inversion pulse of all component values ​​of the magnetosphere. Resetting values ​​to zero is necessary to create conditions of harmony that do not allow values ​​to resonate. The second condition is the emergence of a new pulse of hyper-low frequency with new characteristics of its components again providing the conditions for the existence of the biosphere for the period of the next era. Introducing all kinds of adjustments to the physical world, a new climate, new continents, ocean currents, calderas, mountain and river systems, wind roses and other natural changes that stimulate all living things to a new round of evolution. Accordingly, this process will be accompanied by a mass of destructive consequences associated primarily with the reshaping of the geoid of the Earth’s body, with the shift of tectonic plates, changes in the sea level of many landscapes, accompanied by giant tsunamis and storms. The trajectories of the movement of the poles to new coordinate points will instantly freeze, as will the territories of the newly formed polar systems. It is for this reason that animal bodies have been repeatedly discovered in permafrost. Many representatives of tropical flora and fauna were frozen into the polar glaciers. Paleontologists constantly find perfectly preserved remains of ancient animals and plants in permafrost - mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, palm trees with green leaves and ripe fruits, etc.
It was the impact of gigantic tsunamis long as the world's oceans and 90-degree inversions that formed coal basins, sweeping away everything in their path and burying everything swept away in the valleys in a thick layer of mud, sand and silt. Also, such rapid burials ensured the formation conditions and preservation of fossils of representatives of flora and fauna, and other artifacts of previous eras. It is known that all living beings who die these days decompose. The sleeping fish floats to the surface of the water and gradually begins to succumb to decomposition processes. The corpses of animals that die on land are either eaten by predators or quickly decompose. Dead plants are also destroyed in relatively short periods of time. How did the process of fossil formation take place in the past? The most logical explanation is that living things were quickly buried as a result of tidal activity, massive land shifts, and volcanic eruptions on a global scale. Important factors in subsequent fossilization processes were very high temperature and pressure. Sedimentary layers were thus not formed gradually over millions of years, but could be the result of a cataclysm. The fossil record is replete with examples that support this assumption. As mentioned above, accumulations of fossils in different areas of the planet indicate that living organisms once died suddenly. Developing this idea, let's look at examples. Fossilized remains of fish Well-preserved accumulations of fish of a wide variety of species have been discovered by scientists in many parts of the planet. How did fish end up in areas where there is no water these days, for example, high in the mountains?
Such tsunamis are capable of penetrating deep into continents, the main reason for their occurrence will be the newly formed equator, and the restructuring of the geoid of the planet’s body into a new sphere. It is for this reason that the fracture of lithospheric plates gives rise to mountain ranges where giant blocks of lithospheric plates stand almost vertically, forming rocky overhangs of young mountain systems. Due to the algorithm for the passage of inversions, all mountain systems are diverse in the time of their origin; there are more ancient ones like the Urals, and there are relatively young ones like the Alps. But they all arose in a very short period of time, almost within a few days, and this is absolutely obvious. In the process of rebuilding the geoid of the Earth's body from previous inversions, many artifacts found themselves under the water column of newly formed seas and oceans, ancient cities and various man-made structures of previous civilizations. The most important property of inversions is their passage at the moments of equinoxes and solstices, where the mixing of the polar and equatorial structure of the Earth’s magnetosphere gives rise to the property of shifting seasons, which is necessary for all forms of life during this period to ensure maximum conditions for their survival, where the new emerging a pulse of hyperlow frequency with the maximum amplitude of all component quantities of the magnetosphere.
Undoubtedly, official natural sciences will provide this information with a lot of counterarguments based on generally accepted theories, but we must not forget that these are just theories, for the most part, justified by facts of mathematical fitting, and nothing more.
But even despite a lot of counterarguments from official natural sciences, they can be discredited by obvious facts directly related to the Solar-Lunar cycle, contrary to official theories and explanations of this process. Most of our contemporaries observed with their own eyes the natural phenomenon of a Lunar Eclipse at the full moon, the gradually emerging and fading crescent shape of the uniformly illuminated lunar surface until complete shading by the Earth’s sphere, and the again growing crescent shape until the lunar surface was completely illuminated, until the visible full moon. Please pay attention to the fact that in this process we can see only sickle-shaped irregular shapes for the most part, and not exactly half of the lunar surface delimited by an even straight line, similar to the picture of the end of the first lunar phase. An even bigger question is raised by the illumination of the moon's surface by the second phase of the moon, regarding the generally accepted theory of shading of the Lunar sphere by the Earth's sphere, namely the visible illuminated part of more than half of the surface of the moon is obverse crescent-shaped. The scale of blatant outright lies is amazing, even taking into account the attempt of official natural sciences to rehabilitate themselves in this mistake, and come up with an even more ridiculous theory to explain the visible lunar cycle, crescent-shaped hemispheres and reverse crescent shapes, by the fact that the lunar sphere makes one revolution around the Earth in 29.5 days (by the way, the average statistical value) and we are provided with a picture of the illumination of the lunar sphere from different viewing angles during one cycle. Every artist and most ordinary people know that no matter the angle at which the sphere is illuminated, an unevenly illuminated spot will always be visible, in most cases of irregular shape, and uniformly illuminated crescent-shaped hemispheres and reverse crescent shapes will never be visible, because this is a sphere and not a disk. This is how they distort and hide the simple essence of obvious things. The explanation for this process looks different, the fact is that the main difference between the magnetosphere of the Earth and the Moon is that the Earth rotates its own body in a relatively stationary magnetosphere, the Moon rotates its own magnetic field around a relatively stationary body. In other words, we see the rotation of the equatorial ring of the Moon’s magnetic field and the delimitation of the spectrum visible to humans by the equatorial structure.
The official theory regarding the origin of lunar craters looks similar. The official theory of the origin of Moon craters boldly convinces us that their nature is the result of the fall of many meteorites and fireballs. The first thing you should pay attention to is that the diameter of the Earth is almost 4 times larger than the diameter of the Moon, and the Moon always faces the Earth with one side of the lunar craters. Secondly, all craters are round in shape and have different diameters, which means that all meteorite bodies had to fall along a strictly perpendicular trajectory relative to the surface of the Moon, this is the only way round craters can form. When a meteorite falls at any other angle, an oblong trail of irregular shape is formed, especially considering the density of the lunar surface. Third, given the difference in diameters of the Earth and the Moon, and the relative immobility of the Lunar sphere and the regular circumference of the craters, most of these craters should have been on Earth. Is this a paradox or a complete failure of natural sciences raised on an unprecedented lie? If you try to ask similar questions to servants of science, there is a 101 percent chance that the answer will be: “Well, this is because, due to certain circumstances, there are many references to different ununited sections of the same natural sciences, etc., etc. . up to the utopian theory of the singularity, the apogee of the servants."
Calculation of the astronomical era of the chronology system.
The calculation of the astronomical era is carried out according to the algorithm of the ratio of the number of complete lunar cycles to one astronomical year. The arithmetic mean value of one full Lunar cycle is ~29.5 days, in reality it ranges from 28.07 to 30.13 days and is calculated by the formation of one extra 13th month in relation to the astronomical year, since there are 354 Earth days in twelve lunar months. The calculation algorithm is based on the multiple of the period of formation of the 13th month in relation to the number of Earth astronomical years. Its full cycle is 45 astronomical years. The imperial dependence of numbers looks schematically.
Single 1. 365 days: divided by 12 + 1 month = 28.07
Double. 2. 365 × 2 ÷ (24+1) = 29.2
Three times. 3. 365 × 3 ÷ 37 = 29.59
4. 365 × 4 ÷ 49 = 29.79
5. 365 × 5 ÷ 61 = 29.91
6. 365 × 6 ÷ 73 = 30
7. 365 × 7 ÷ 85 = 30.05
8. 365 × 8 ÷ 97 = 30.1
Nine times 9. 365 × 9÷109= 30.13
The sum of the nine results is exactly 266.84 divided by the number of multiple cycles, the result 29.64 is the arithmetic average of the duration of one Lunar cycle after 45 years. A full cycle of one astronomical era is equal to forty complete algorithms of 45 years, that is, 1800 Solar-Lunar cycles, which will correspond to 1860 Earthly astronomical years. Due to the main function of modification of the earth's magnetosphere during one astronomical era, associated with the displacement of the Earth's body within the structure of its own magnetosphere and the beginning of the movement of the poles from the initial post-inversion points coinciding with the geographical ones, along the Fibonacci spiral. According to the above-described algorithm for the multiplicity of Lunar cycles, each of the nine algorithms accounts for a total displacement of the poles by 1° along the trajectory of the Fibonacci spiral. This means that each dawn of the next multiple cycle will begin 4 minutes earlier, this is how the calendar system differs from the astronomical one, which ensures 365 days in one calendar year and the need to add one day for every fourth year. Another need to introduce a calendar system of chronology is aimed at concealing the process of shifting the equinoxes and solstices relative to the seasons and also requires the need for the so-called spring year. Since after one astronomical era, the magnetic poles make one full revolution along the trajectory of the Fibonacci spiral, which ensures the declination of the Earth’s axis relative to the ecliptic of the Sun, and winter will change with summer relative to the calendar months.
The same process explains the drop in the values ​​of all components of the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field and the increase in their frequencies, for example Schumann.

The Earth is often, and not without reason, called the double planet Earth-Moon. The Moon (Selene, goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology), our celestial neighbor, was the first to be directly studied.

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth, located at a distance of 384 thousand km (60 radii of the Earth). The average radius of the Moon is 1738 km (almost 4 times less than the Earth's). The Moon's mass is 1/81 that of the Earth, which is significantly greater than similar ratios for other planets in the Solar System (except for the Pluto-Charon pair); therefore, the Earth–Moon system is considered a double planet. It has a common center of gravity - the so-called barycenter, which is located in the body of the Earth at a distance of 0.73 radii from its center (1700 km from the surface of the Ocean). Both components of the system rotate around this center, and it is the barycenter that moves in orbit around the Sun. The average density of lunar substance is 3.3 g/cm 3 (terrestrial - 5.5 g/cm 3). The volume of the Moon is 50 times smaller than the Earth. The force of lunar gravity is 6 times weaker than the earth's. The moon rotates around its axis, which is why it is slightly flattened at the poles. The axis of rotation of the Moon makes an angle of 83°22" with the plane of the lunar orbit. The plane of the Moon's orbit does not coincide with the plane of the Earth's orbit and is inclined to it at an angle of 5°9". The places where the orbits of the Earth and the Moon intersect are called the nodes of the lunar orbit.

The orbit of the Moon is an ellipse, in one of the foci of which the Earth is located, therefore the distance from the Moon to the Earth varies from 356 to 406 thousand km. The period of the orbital revolution of the Moon and, accordingly, the same position of the Moon on the celestial sphere is called the sidereal (sidereal) month (Latin sidus, sideris (genus) - star). It is 27.3 Earth days. The sidereal month coincides with the period of the Moon’s daily rotation around its axis due to their identical angular speed (approx. 13.2° per day), established due to the braking effect of the Earth. Due to the synchronicity of these movements, the Moon always faces us with one side. However, we see almost 60% of its surface due to libration - the apparent swaying of the Moon up and down (due to the mismatch of the planes of the lunar and Earth's orbits and the inclination of the Moon's rotation axis to the orbit) and left and right (due to the fact that the Earth is in one of the foci of the lunar orbit, and the visible hemisphere of the Moon faces the center of the ellipse).

When moving around the Earth, the Moon takes different positions relative to the Sun. Associated with this are the different phases of the Moon, that is, different shapes of its visible part. The main four phases are: new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter. The line on the surface of the Moon separating the illuminated part of the Moon from the unlit part is called the terminator.

During the new moon, the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth and faces the Earth with its unlit side, therefore invisible. In the first quarter, the Moon is visible from the Earth at an angular distance of 90° from the Sun, and the sun's rays illuminate only the right half of the side of the Moon facing the Earth. During a full moon, the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, the hemisphere of the Moon facing the Earth is brightly illuminated by the Sun, and the Moon is visible as a full disk. During the last quarter, the Moon is again visible from the Earth at an angular distance of 90° from the Sun, and the sun's rays illuminate the left half of the visible side of the Moon. In the intervals between these main phases, the Moon is visible either as a crescent or as an incomplete disk.

The period of complete change of lunar phases, i.e., the period of the Moon returning to its original position relative to the Sun and Earth, is called the synodic month. It averages 29.5 mean solar days. During the synodic month on the Moon, the change of day and night occurs once, the duration of which is = 14.7 days. The synodic month is more than two days longer than the sidereal month. This is the result of the fact that the direction of the axial rotation of the Earth and the Moon coincides with the direction of the orbital motion of the Moon. When the Moon completes a full revolution around the Earth in 27.3 days, the Earth will advance approximately 27° in its orbit around the Sun, since its angular orbital speed is about 1° per day. In this case, the Moon will take the same position among the stars, but will not be in the full moon phase, since for this it needs to advance in its orbit another 27° behind the “escaped” Earth. Since the angular velocity of the Moon is approximately 13.2° per day, it covers this distance in about two days and additionally moves another 2° behind the moving Earth. As a result, the synodic month turns out to be more than two days longer than the sidereal month. Although the Moon moves around the Earth from west to east, its apparent movement in the sky occurs from east to west due to the high speed of rotation of the Earth compared to the orbital movement of the Moon. Moreover, during the upper culmination (the highest point of its path in the sky), the Moon shows the direction of the meridian (north - south), which can be used for approximate orientation on the ground. And since the upper culmination of the Moon at different phases occurs at different hours of the day: during the first quarter - about 18 o'clock, during the full moon - at midnight, during the last quarter - about 6 o'clock in the morning (local time), this can also be used for rough estimate of time at night.

Basic information about the Moon

© Vladimir Kalanov,
website"Knowledge is power".

The Moon is the largest cosmic body closest to Earth. The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. Distance from Earth to Moon: 384400 km.

In the middle of the surface of the Moon, facing our planet, there are large seas (dark spots).
They represent areas that were filled with lava a very long time ago.

Average distance from Earth: 384,000 km (min. 356,000 km, max. 407,000 km)
Equator diameter - 3480 km
Gravity - 1/6 of Earth's
The period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth is 27.3 Earth days
The period of rotation of the Moon around its axis is 27.3 Earth days. (The period of revolution around the Earth and the period of rotation of the Moon are equal, which means that the Moon always faces the Earth with one side; both planets rotate around a common center located inside the globe, so it is generally accepted that the Moon rotates around the Earth.)
Sidereal month (phases): 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 03 seconds
Average orbital speed: 1 km/s.
The mass of the Moon is 7.35 x10 22 kg. (1/81 of Earth's mass)
Surface temperature:
- maximum: 122°C;
- minimum: -169°C.
Average density: 3.35 (g/cm³).
Atmosphere: none;
Water: none.

It is believed that the internal structure of the Moon is similar to the structure of the Earth. The Moon has a liquid core with a diameter of about 1500 km, around which there is a mantle about 1000 km thick, and the upper layer is a crust covered with a layer of lunar soil on top. The most superficial layer of soil consists of regolith, a gray porous substance. The thickness of this layer is about six meters, and the thickness of the lunar crust is on average 60 km.

People have been observing this amazing night star for thousands of years. Every nation has songs, myths and fairy tales about the Moon. Moreover, the songs are mostly lyrical and soulful. In Russia, for example, it is impossible to meet a person who does not know the Russian folk song “The Moon is Shining,” and in Ukraine everyone loves the beautiful song “Nich Yaka Misyachna.” However, I cannot vouch for everyone, especially young people. After all, unfortunately, there may be those who prefer the Rolling Stones and their rock effects. But let's not digress from the topic.

Interest in the Moon

People have been interested in the Moon since ancient times. Already in the 7th century BC. Chinese astronomers have established that the time intervals between identical phases of the Moon are 29.5 days, and the length of the year is 366 days.

Around the same time, astronomers in Babylon published a kind of cuneiform book on astronomy on clay tablets, which contained information about the Moon and five planets. Surprisingly, the stargazers of Babylon already knew how to calculate the time periods between lunar eclipses.

Not much later, in the 6th century BC. The Greek Pythagoras already argued that the Moon does not shine with its own light, but reflects sunlight onto the Earth.

Based on observations, accurate lunar calendars have long been compiled for various regions of the Earth.

Observing dark areas on the surface of the Moon, the first astronomers were sure that they were seeing lakes or seas similar to those on Earth. They did not yet know that they could not talk about any water, because on the surface of the Moon the temperature during the day reaches plus 122°C, and at night - minus 169°C.

Before the advent of spectral analysis, and then space rockets, the study of the Moon was essentially reduced to visual observation or, as they now say, to monitoring. The invention of the telescope expanded the possibilities of studying both the Moon and other celestial bodies. Elements of the lunar landscape, numerous craters (of various origins) and “seas” subsequently began to receive the names of prominent people, mainly scientists. The names of scientists and thinkers from different eras and peoples appeared on the visible side of the Moon: Plato and Aristotle, Pythagoras and, Darwin and Humboldt, and Amundsen, Ptolemy and Copernicus, Gauss and, Struve and Keldysh, and Lorenz and others.

In 1959, a Soviet automatic station photographed the far side of the Moon. Another one has been added to the existing lunar mysteries: unlike the visible side, there are almost no dark areas of “seas” on the far side of the Moon.

Craters discovered on the far side of the Moon, at the suggestion of Soviet astronomers, were named after Jules Verne, Giordano Bruno, Edison and Maxwell, and one of the dark areas was called the Sea of ​​Moscow. The names are approved by the International Astronomical Union.

One of the craters on the visible side of the Moon is named Hevelius. This is the name of the Polish astronomer Jan Hevelius (1611-1687), who was one of the first to view the Moon through a telescope. In his hometown of Gdansk, Hevelius, a lawyer by training and a passionate lover of astronomy, published the most detailed atlas of the Moon for that time, calling it “Selenography”. This work brought him worldwide fame. The atlas consisted of 600 folio pages and 133 engravings. Hevelius typed the texts himself, made engravings and printed the edition himself. He did not begin to guess which mortal was worthy and which was not worthy of imprinting his name on the eternal tablet of the lunar disk. Hevelius gave earthly names to the mountains discovered on the surface of the Moon: Carpathians, Alps, Apennines, Caucasus, Riphean (i.e., Ural) mountains.

Science has accumulated a lot of knowledge about the Moon. We know that the Moon shines from sunlight reflected by its surface. The Moon is constantly turned to the Earth with one side, because its full revolution around its own axis and its revolution around the Earth are the same in duration and equal to 27 Earth days and eight hours. But why, for what reason did such synchronicity arise? This is one of the mysteries.

Moon phases

As the Moon rotates around the Earth, the lunar disk changes its position relative to the Sun. Therefore, an observer on Earth sees the Moon successively as a complete bright circle, then as a crescent, becoming an increasingly thin crescent, until this crescent completely disappears from view. Then everything repeats: the thin crescent of the Moon reappears and increases to a crescent, and then to a full disk. The phase when the Moon is not visible is called the new moon. The phase during which a thin “sickle”, appearing on the right side of the lunar disk, grows to a semicircle is called the first quarter. The illuminated part of the disk grows and covers the entire disk - the full moon phase has begun. After this, the illuminated disk decreases to a semicircle (the last quarter) and continues to decrease until the narrow “sickle” on the left side of the lunar disk disappears from the field of view, i.e. the new moon comes again and everything repeats itself.

A complete change of phases occurs in 29.5 Earth days, i.e. within about a month. That is why in popular speech the Moon is called a month.

So, there is nothing miraculous in the phenomenon of changing phases of the moon. It is also not a miracle that the Moon does not fall to the Earth, although it experiences the powerful gravity of the Earth. It does not fall because the force of gravity is balanced by the inertial force of the Moon's motion in its orbit around the Earth. The law of universal gravitation, discovered by Isaac Newton, operates here. But... why did the movement of the Moon around the Earth, the movement of the Earth and other planets around the Sun arise, what reason, what force initially made these celestial bodies move in the indicated way? The answer to this question must be sought in the processes that occurred when the Sun and the entire Solar system arose. But where can we get knowledge about what happened many billions of years ago? The human mind can look both into the unimaginably distant past and into the future. This is evidenced by the achievements of many sciences, including astronomy and astrophysics.

Landing man on the moon

The most impressive and, without exaggeration, epochal achievements of scientific and technical thought in the 20th century were: the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in the USSR on October 7, 1957, the first manned flight into space, performed by Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and the landing of a man on the Moon, carried out by the United States. States of America on July 21, 1969.

To date, 12 people have already walked on the Moon (all of them are US citizens), but the glory always belongs to the first. The first people to set foot on the moon were Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. They landed on the Moon from the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which was piloted by astronaut Michael Collins. Collins was on a spacecraft that was flying in lunar orbit. After completing work on the lunar surface, Armstrong and Aldrin launched from the Moon on the lunar compartment of the spacecraft and, after docking in lunar orbit, transferred to the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which then headed for Earth. On the Moon, the astronauts carried out scientific observations, took photographs of the surface, collected samples of lunar soil and did not forget to plant the national flag of their homeland on the Moon.

From left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin.

The first astronauts showed courage and true heroism. These words are standard, but they fully apply to Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. Danger could await them at every stage of the flight: when launching from Earth, when entering orbit of the Moon, when landing on the Moon. And where was the guarantee that they would return from the Moon to the ship piloted by Collins, and then fly safely to Earth? But that's not all. No one knew in advance what conditions people would encounter on the Moon, or how their space suits would behave. The only thing the astronauts could not fear was that they would not drown in lunar dust. The Soviet automatic station "Luna-9" landed on one of the plains of the Moon in 1966, and its instruments reported: there is no dust! By the way, the general designer of Soviet space systems, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, even earlier, in 1964, based solely on his scientific intuition, stated (and in writing) that there is no dust on the Moon. Of course, this does not mean the complete absence of any dust, but the absence of a layer of dust of noticeable thickness. After all, some scientists previously assumed the presence on the Moon of a layer of loose dust up to 2-3 meters deep or more.

But Armstrong and Aldrin were personally convinced that Academician S.P. was right. Koroleva: There is no dust on the Moon. But this was already after landing, and when reaching the surface of the Moon there was great excitement: Armstrong’s pulse rate reached 156 beats per minute; the fact that the landing took place in the “Sea of ​​Tranquility” was not very reassuring.

An interesting and unexpected conclusion based on studying the features of the lunar surface was made quite recently by some Russian geologists and astronomers. In their opinion, the relief of the side of the Moon facing the Earth is very reminiscent of the surface of the Earth as it was in the past. The general outlines of the lunar “seas” are, as it were, an imprint of the contours of the earth’s continents, which they were 50 million years ago, when, according to , almost the entire landmass of the Earth looked like one huge continent. It turns out that for some reason the “portrait” of the young Earth was imprinted on the surface of the Moon. This probably happened when the lunar surface was in a soft, plastic state. What kind of process was it (if there was one, of course), as a result of which such “photography” of the Earth by the Moon occurred? Who will answer this question?

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In very ancient times, people did not have a correct idea of ​​​​the shape and size of our planet and what place it occupies in space. We now know that the physical surface of the Earth, which is a combination of land and water, has a very complex geometric shape; it cannot be represented by any of the known and mathematically studied geometric figures. On the Earth's surface, seas and oceans occupy about 71%, and land - about 29%; the highest mountains and the greatest depths of the oceans are negligible compared to the size of the entire Earth. So, for example, on a globe with a diameter of 60 cm, Mount Everest, approximately 8840 m high, will be depicted as just a grain of 0.25 mm. Therefore, the general - theoretical - form of the Earth is taken to be a body limited by the surface of the oceans, which is in a calm state, mentally continued under all the continents. This surface is called geoid(geo is Greek for “earth”). As a first approximation, the figure of the Earth is calculated ellipsoid of revolution(spheroid) - a surface formed as a result of the rotation of an ellipse around its axis.

The dimensions of the earth's spheroid were determined repeatedly, but the most fundamental of them were established in 1940 in the USSR by F. N. Krasovsky (1873–1948) and A. A. Izotov (1907–1988): according to their definitions, the minor axis of the earth's spheroid, coinciding with the axis of rotation of the Earth, b= 6356.86 km, and the semimajor axis, perpendicular to the minor axis and lying in the plane of the earth’s equator, a= 6378.24 km.

Attitude α = (a - b)/a, called the compression of the earth's spheroid, is equal to 1/298.3.

In 1964, the decision of the International Astronomical Union (MAC) for the terrestrial spheroid was adopted a= 6378.16 km, b= 6356.78 km and α = 1:298.25, which is very close to the results obtained by Soviet scientists in 1940 and adopted by the resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers of April 7, 1946 as fundamental for all astronomical, geodetic and cartographic work carried out in our country.

Being at any point on the earth's surface, we soon discover that everything visible in the sky (Sun, Moon, stars, planets) revolves around us as one whole. In fact, this phenomenon is apparent, it is a consequence of the rotation of the Earth around its axis from west to east, i.e. in the direction opposite to the apparent daily rotation of the firmament around axis mundi, representing a straight line parallel to the axis of rotation of the Earth, the ends of which are northern And south poles of our planet. The rotation of the Earth around its axis can be proven in different ways. But now it can be directly observed using spacecraft.

In ancient times, people believed that the Sun, moving relative to the stars, circled our planet within one year, while the Earth seemed to be stationary and located at the center of the Universe. Ancient astronomers also adhered to this idea of ​​the universe. It was reflected in the famous work of the ancient Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century), written in the middle of the 2nd century. and known under the distorted name "Almagest". This world system is called geocentric(from the same word “geo”).

A new stage in the development of astronomy begins with the publication in 1543 of the book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres” by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), which sets out heliocentric(helios - “sun”) a system of the world that reflects the actual structure of the solar system. According to the theory of N. Copernicus, the center of the world is the Sun, around which the spherical Earth and all planets similar to it move and, moreover, in the same direction, each rotating relative to one of its diameters, and that only the Moon revolves around the Earth, being its constant satellite, and together with the latter moves around the Sun, while in approximately the same plane.

Rice. 1. Apparent movement of the Sun

To determine the position of certain luminaries on the celestial sphere, it is necessary to have “reference” points and lines. And here, first of all, a plumb line is used, the direction of which coincides with the direction of gravity. Extended up and down, this line intersects the celestial sphere at points Z and Z" (Fig. 1), called respectively zenith And nadir.

The great circle of the celestial sphere, the plane of which is perpendicular to the line ZZ", is called mathematical or true horizon. The PP axis, around which the celestial sphere rotates in its apparent motion (this rotation is a reflection of the rotation of the Earth), is called the axis of the world: it intersects the surface of the celestial sphere at two points - northern P and southern P." poles of the world.

The great circle of the celestial sphere QLQ"F, the plane of which is perpendicular to the celestial axis PP", is celestial equator; it divides the celestial sphere into northern And southern hemisphere.

Rice. 2. The movement of the Earth around the Sun (66.5° is the tilt of the Earth’s axis, 23.5° is the tilt of the equator to the ecliptic)

The Earth rotating around its axis moves around the Sun along a path lying in a plane earth's orbit VLWF. Its historical name is ecliptic plane. By ecliptic The visible annual movement of the Sun occurs. The ecliptic is inclined to the plane of the celestial equator at an angle of 23°27′ ≈ 23.5°; it intersects it at two points: at the point spring(T) and point autumn(^) equinoxes. At these points, the Sun in its visible movement moves, respectively, from the southern celestial hemisphere to the northern (March 20 or 21) and from the northern hemisphere to the southern (September 22 or 23).

Only on the days of the equinoxes (twice a year) the rays of the Sun fall on the Earth at right angles to the axis of its rotation and therefore only twice a year day and night last 12 hours each (equinox), and the rest of the year either the day is shorter than the night or vice versa . The reason for this is that the Earth’s rotation axis is not perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, but is inclined to it at an angle of 66.5° (Fig. 2).

§ 2. Movement of the Moon around the Earth

The movement of the Moon around the Earth is very complex for a number of reasons. If the Earth is taken as the center, then the orbit of the Moon, to a first approximation, can be considered an ellipse with eccentricity

e = √ (a 2 - b 2) / a = 0.055,

Where A And b are the major and minor semi-axes of the ellipse, respectively. When is the Moon closest to Earth? perigee, its distance from the Earth’s surface is 356,400 km, in apogee this distance increases to 406,700 km. Its average distance from the Earth is 384,000 km.

The plane of the Moon's orbit is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at an angle of 5°09′; The points where the orbit intersects the ecliptic are called nodes, and the straight line connecting them is line of nodes. The line of nodes moves towards the movement of the Moon, making a full revolution in 6793 days, which is about 18.6 years.

The time interval between two successive passages of the Moon through the same node is called draconic month; its duration is equal to 27.21 average solar days (see § 5).

Since the line of nodes does not remain in place, the Moon does not return exactly to its original position in the orbit after a month, and each subsequent orbit follows a slightly different path.

In relation to the stars, the Moon completes a full revolution in its orbit around the Earth in 27.32 average solar days. This period of time is called sidereal(otherwise stellar; sidus - Latin for “star”) month; after this month, the Moon returns to the same star.

§ 3. Moon phases

Revolving around the Earth, the Moon occupies different positions relative to the Sun, and since it is a dark body and shines only thanks to the solar rays reflected by it, then at different positions of the Moon relative to the Sun we see it in different phases.

Rice. 3. Moon phases

Schematically, the lunar phases are shown in Fig. 3. The orbit shows the Moon (half illuminated by the Sun) in various positions relative to the Earth, and outside the orbit shows the different phases of the Moon as seen from the Earth.

When the Moon, during its movement around the Earth, is between the Sun and the Earth (position 1 ), then its unlit part will be facing the Earth and in this case it will not be visible from the Earth. This phase of the moon is called new moon. If the Moon is in a position directly opposite to the Sun (position 5 ), then the part of it facing the Earth will be completely illuminated by the Sun, and the Moon will be visible from the Earth as a full disk. This phase of the moon is called full moon. When the Moon is in position 3 or 7 , then at this time the directions to the Sun and the Moon will make an angle of 90° and therefore only half of its illuminated disk will be visible from the Earth. These phases of the moon are called accordingly first quarter And last quarter.

Two to three days after the new moon, the Moon will be in position 2 , and then in the evenings at sunset the illuminated part of the lunar disk in the form of a narrow crescent will be visible. After the first quarter, as the Moon approaches the full moon, which occurs approximately 15 days after the new moon, the illuminated part of it will increase every day, and after the full moon, the size of the illuminated part of the Moon, on the contrary, will gradually decrease, until the next new moon, when it will again be completely invisible.

For practical purposes, the repetition period of the lunar phases is often used (for example, from new moon to new moon). This period of time, called synodic month, averages about 29.5 mean solar days. People used the periodic change of phases of the Moon as a second measure of time (after a day - the period of rotation of the Earth around its axis), namely month.

In its apparent daily movement across the celestial sphere, any celestial body finds itself at the highest or lowest point of its path. These moments are called climaxes- respectively top And bottom(they say about a celestial body that it is culminates). At the moment of culmination the luminary crosses celestial meridian- great circle of the celestial sphere ZPVQZ"P"WQ" (Fig. 1), the plane of which passes through the world axis PP" and the plumb line.

The moon culminates at different times throughout the month. On the new moon this occurs at 12 o'clock, in the first quarter - at about 18 o'clock, on the full moon - at 0 o'clock, and in the last quarter - at 6 o'clock.

Notes:

Lenin V.I. Full collection op. - T. 18.- P. 181.

Of course, no firmament actually exists, and its daytime blue color is due to the scattering of sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere.

In addition to a description of the universe, the Almagest contains one of the first star catalogs that have come down to us - a list of 1023 brightest stars.

In astronomy, by tradition big circle They actually call a circle whose plane passes through the center of the celestial sphere.

It is different from visible horizon on the earth's surface, for which the observer takes the line of intersection of the vault of heaven with the flat surface of the Earth.

Every year, the shortest daylight hours and longest night occur on December 22 or 23 (winter solstice). From this time on, the daylight hours gradually increased (“The sun is on its way to the summer,” people said).

Strictly speaking, it is not the Moon that revolves around the Earth, but the Earth and the Moon that revolve around a common center of gravity located inside the Earth.