Our Strange and Wonderful Moon

The Moon has always been an object of fascination. Fishermen cast their nets by it. Farmers plant their seeds by it. In ancient Chinese culture, food was laid out at night to absorb the “moon’s rays” that were thought to cure disease. Myths told of the Moon’s propensity to drive us mad (“lunatics”) while poets wrote about its ability to make us fall in love. As our nearest celestial companion, the Moon’s history is ripe with bizarre and curious facts.

There is a Man on the Moon: Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, a geological surveyor, educated the Apollo Astronauts about craters and moon rocks. It was his dream to go to the Moon but he was unable to become an astronaut due to a medical condition. After his death in 1999, his ashes were placed on a spacecraft that was crashed into a lunar crater to determine if there was water on the moon. To date, he’s the only person to be buried on the moon.

The Moon has virtually no Atmosphere: On Earth, the sky appears blue because our atmosphere filters light from the Sun. Since the Moon is nearly devoid of atmosphere, the Moon’s sky always looks black. There is no sound on the Moon since sound needs atoms to travel through and the Moon is a vacuum.

The Eternal Footprint: Neil Armstrong’s historical “small step for man, giant leap for mankind” left a footprint on the Moon. Because there is no lunar wind, this…