04/08/26 Grif.Net - Odd Fact About Our Moon
b...@grif.net
The farthest that the moon is from the earth is 252,500 miles. In that space (between the earth/moon) you could put EVERY OTHER PLANET in our solar system. I did not think this possible since planets like Jupiter are10+ times larger than Earth, so, of course, I did the math for you: roughly 240,800 miles.
Mercury is 3,000 miles across
Venus is 7,500 miles across (about the same as Earth)
Mars is 4,200 miles across
Jupiter is 88,800 miles across
Saturn is 74,900 miles across
Uranus is 31,700 miles across
Neptune is 30,700 miles across
The media on April 6th was going ballistic with radical views of the backside of the moon (“never before seen”). Hogwash. Not seen in 50 years, so many of the comentators were in diapers back then. But each Apollo mission that reached the moon HAD to orbit it to then be whiplashed back toward earth.
Apollo missions where astronauts landed meant the command capsule had to make more than 30 orbits around the moon before redocking. The “back side”, since the moon does not rotate, is never seen from earth but has been seen more than 300 times before this week’s viewing.
The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it is also 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun is, which allows it to cover the Sun perfectly during a total solar eclipse. What a coincidence [not].
The moon is not circular (or nearly circular like the planet earth). If it oval, like an egg, with the narrow part of the moon always facing earth. Because of the “wobble” in it travel around earth, we see MORE than 50% of the moon’s surface, with small bits showing in all directions at some point in the years. This reveals almost 60%, not 50%.
Did you see the full moon on April 1st. It is the “Pink Moon”. It was cloudy here, but despite its name, the Moon didl not appear pink — the name comes from the Creeping Phlox, one of the first spring flowers to bloom, spreading soft pink colors across the landscape of earth at that time of year.
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Dr Bob Griffin
“Safe from all harms in His sheltering arms
I'm living by faith and feel no alarm.”
