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Capture theory suggests that the Moon was a wandering body (like an asteroid ) that formed elsewhere in the solar system and was captured by Earth's gravity as it passed nearby. The bright waxing gibbous moon will pass the Pleiades star cluster on the evenings of December 23 and 24, 2023. The Pleiades is also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 and appears as a glittering, bluish cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus the Bull. The moon and Pleiades will cross the sky together until about an hour before sunrise. Chart via EarthSky. December 25 all night: Moon near Capella, Aldebaran and Betelgeuse On 1 November 2023, scientists reported that, according to computer simulations, remnants of a protoplanet, named Theia, could be inside the Earth, left over from a collision with the Earth in ancient times, and afterwards becoming the Moon. [59] [60] Natural development Artist's depiction of the Moon as it might have appeared in Earth's sky after the Late Heavy Bombardment around 4 billion years ago, when its orbit was half as close to Earth and it appeared 2.8 times larger than today. [61] Main articles: Internal structure of the Moon and Geology of the Moon Moon's internal structure: solid inner core (iron-metallic), molten outer core, hardened mantle and crust. The crust on the Moon's near side permanently facing Earth is thinner, featuring larger areas flooded by material of the once molten mantle forming today's lunar mare. The waxing crescent moon will pass the steady light of golden Saturn on the evenings of December 16 and 17, 2023. You’ll be able to watch Saturn and the moon until a few hours before midnight. Chart via EarthSky. December 19: 1st quarter moon
Mia Fineman in Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, pp. 74, 176, 183 n. 8, colorpl. 44, ill. p. 6 (color detail). Isotope dating of lunar samples suggests the Moon formed around 50million years after the origin of the Solar System. [37] [38] Historically, several formation mechanisms have been proposed, [39] but none satisfactorily explains the features of the Earth–Moon system. A fission of the Moon from Earth's crust through centrifugal force [40] would require too great an initial rotation rate of Earth. [41] Gravitational capture of a pre-formed Moon [42] depends on an unfeasibly extended atmosphere of Earth to dissipate the energy of the passing Moon. [41] A co-formation of Earth and the Moon together in the primordial accretion disk does not explain the depletion of metals in the Moon. [41] None of these hypotheses can account for the high angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. [43] So now that you’ve planned the best Two The Moon party, the last thing to take care of is to get a couple great gifts for your space-obsessed little one. The great part about the party decor I used, like the outer space felt set, is that it’s a toy that will be used again and again, not just a decoration that might get thrown out.The lunar solid crust experiences tides of around 10cm (4in) amplitude over 27days, with three components: a fixed one due to Earth, because they are in synchronous rotation, a variable tide due to orbital eccentricity and inclination, and a small varying component from the Sun. [171] The Earth-induced variable component arises from changing distance and libration, a result of the Moon's orbital eccentricity and inclination (if the Moon's orbit were perfectly circular and un-inclined, there would only be solar tides). [171] According to recent research, scientists suggest that the Moon's influence on the Earth may contribute to maintaining Earth's magnetic field. [172] Scientists believe that the Moon formed early in the solar system’s history after Earth and an object about the size of Mars smashed into each other. The impact sent chunks of Earth and the impactor into space that were pulled together by gravity, creating the Moon.
Everyone knows that the Moon is partly responsible for causing the tides of our oceans and seas on Earth, with the Sun also having an effect. Two Men Contemplating the Moon, 1819. Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄4 × 17 1⁄2 in. (35 × 44.5 cm), Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Friedrich gave this version (the first) to his friend and upstairs neighbor, Johan Christian Dahl, in exchange for one of Dahl’s works. Dahl kept the picture, of which Friedrich made two more versions, until Friedrich’s death, when he sold it to the Dresden Gemäldegalerie. The Twinkle Twinkle Little Star book by Caroline Jayne Church book has an iridescent shiny cover that’s sure to capture your toddler’s attention.
The moon will reach apogee– its farthest distance from Earth in its elliptical orbit around the Earth – at 19 UTC (1 p.m. CST) on December 4, 2023, when it’s 251,248 miles (404,346 kilometers) away. December 5: Last quarter moon The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has since confirmed the existence of surface water ice, using the on-board Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The spectrometer observed absorption lines common to hydroxyl, in reflected sunlight, providing evidence of large quantities of water ice, on the lunar surface. The spacecraft showed that concentrations may possibly be as high as 1,000 ppm. [153] Using the mapper's reflectance spectra, indirect lighting of areas in shadow confirmed water ice within 20° latitude of both poles in 2018. [154] In 2009, LCROSS sent a 2,300kg (5,100lb) impactor into a permanently shadowed polar crater, and detected at least 100kg (220lb) of water in a plume of ejected material. [155] [156] Another examination of the LCROSS data showed the amount of detected water to be closer to 155±12kg (342±26lb). [157] The semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit, called the Lunar distance, is approximately 400,000km (250,000 miles or 1.28 light-seconds), comparable to going around Earth 9.5 times. [166] The position of the Moon and the Sun during Each of the Moon’s phases and the Moon as it appears from Earth during each phase. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
December 25, 2023, the bright waxing gibbous moon will lie near a trio of bright stars. It’ll be near the fiery orange star Aldebaran of Taurus the Bull and Orion’s mighty red supergiant star Betelgeuse. The bright golden star is Capella of the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. If you catch Capella low on the horizon, it may be flashing like a small disco ball. You can follow them all night until sunrise. Chart via EarthSky. December 26-27, all night: Full Moon On the final morning of the month, November 30, 2023, Venus will reach its closest approach – or will have a close conjunction– to the star Spica. Spica is the brightest star in Virgo the Maiden. They’ll be a little over 4 degrees apart on the sky’s dome, or roughly the width of 8 full moons lined up side-by-side. Chart via EarthSky. December 1 morning: Moon near Castor, Pollux and Procyon This work, painted about 1830, is the third variant of one of Friedrich’s most cited and reproduced paintings. In the first version, a rust-brown haze envelops sky and landscape, creating a nocturnal mood (1819, Dresden Gemäldegalerie; see Notes). In the second version, the two protagonists are a man and a woman, and the sky is changed to a rose-mauve dusk (ca. 1824, Nationalgalerie, Berlin; see Notes). Here, Friedrich retained the luminosity of the Berlin canvas yet reintroduced the two male figures found in the Dresden composition. Infrared photographs have established that Friedrich made no underdrawings, and his painting is so fluid that the forms appear less detailed than in the other two versions. Suffused with rose-mauve light, the present scene conveys the greatest sense of serenity. With the different positions of the Moon, different areas of it are illuminated by the Sun. This illumination of different lunar areas, as viewed from Earth, produces the different lunar phases during the synodic month. A phase is equal to the area of the visible lunar sphere that is illuminated by the Sun. This area or degree of illumination is given by ( 1 − cos e ) / 2 = sin 2 ( e / 2 ) {\displaystyle (1-\cos e)/2=\sin
The surface of the Moon
At 14:00 UTC (8 a.m. CST) on December 4, Mercury will reach its farthest angular distance from the sun, known as greatest eastern elongation. Moon at apogee around December 4 The Greek goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, Artemis, equated with the Roman Diana, one of whose symbols was the Moon and who was often regarded as the goddess of the Moon, was also called Cynthia, from her legendary birthplace on Mount Cynthus. [34] These names – Luna, Cynthia and Selene – are reflected in technical terms for lunar orbits such as apolune, pericynthion and selenocentric.
More delightful inspiration in this Dreamy Little Star Birthday Party and this Under the Stars S’mores Birthday Party Guy Ottewell explains sky dome maps View larger. | Here is the sky dome view for November 2023. It shows what is above the horizon at mid-evening for mid-northern latitudes. The view may vary depending on your location. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission. View larger. | Here is the sky dome view for December 2023. It shows what is above the horizon at mid-evening for mid-northern latitudes. The view may vary depending on your location. Image via Guy Ottewell. Used with permission. Heliocentric solar system planets When decorating for a Two The Moon party there are so many adorable ideas you can use, that don’t cost an arm and a leg, for your big celebration. The best part of my party decorations for this special occasion is the fact that we were able to use things we already had around the house like toys such as an outer space felt sheet activity. During this massive collision, nearly all of Earth and Theia melted and reformed as one body, with a small part of the new mass spinning off to become the Moon as we know it.Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon, ca. 1824. Oil on canvas, 13 3⁄8 × 17 3⁄8 in. (34 × 44 cm), Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. A second version, previously dated 1830–35 by Börsch-Supan; whereabouts before 1935 unknown.
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