Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Some Interesting Stuff about the Moon

A Moon Candy Box

I was reading a piece about the creation and destiny of the moon, and became aware of two interesting things I hadn't previously known. No, not it's exact diameter or the distance from the earth down to the last centimetre! Aren't there so many facts out there that you don't wanna or need to know! Like just so much National Geographic wallpaper.


Interesting Fact Number One. The origin of the moon was from the accretion of the material thrown into space when Thea, one of the larger numbers of planets that circled our sun four billion years ago, collided with the earth.

Still from the early French film 'Le Voyage dans la lune' (Georges Melies, 1902)

Interesting Fact Number Two. Some of the craters on the moon were formed when debris from this collision was finally drawn to the moon by it's gravitational field. So the early geological history of the earth has been preserved there in a pristine undegraded state.

Features of the Moon Giving Rise to the 'Man in the Moon' Stuff: Eyes (Lava Flows of Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis), Nose (Flow of Sinus Aestuum) and Mouth (Flows of Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum)

Interesting Fact Number Thrre. The moon is increasingly moving away from the earth - at the rate of half an inch a year, a fact determined by scientists from beaming radio waves off a panel left on its surface during one of the moon landings.

So the moon's POQ-ing! And going to leave us in a romantic vacuum!