Nadine Heroux

Week: 27, day 4

Date: May 27, 2014
Word Length: 455


Our Moon and Tides


The moon is a beautiful planet it affects our tides and the ocean amongst other things it is a
marvelous creation. It is interesting how our moon can have such a large affect on our planets
source of life.

The moon is the world's only natural satellite. It was formed over 4.6 billion years ago, scientist
believe it to have been 30-40 million years after the formation of the solar system. Thats pretty
incredible. The moon has a circumference of 10,917.0 Km and is approximately 384,400 km
away from earth. The moon drifts away from the earth 3.8 cm every year. The moons gravity is
much weaker then earth's gravity, meaning that a person weighs much less on the moon than
they originally would on earth.

The moon affects the earth's tides because of its gravitational power that it exerts on the earth
and causes a gravitational pull on the earth that makes the the ocean to bulge away from the
earth in opposite directions, this is due to the earth pulling away from the ocean towards the
moon, the rotation of the earth combined with the gravitational pull of the moon causes the tides
to change.

The moon goes through phases some of which are the new phase, the young crescent phase,
first quarter phase, gibbous phase, last quarter phase, waning crescent phase, and then all over
again beginning with the new phase.

The New moon phase is invisible to observers on earth except during a solar eclipse, the
crescent phase represents the number of days or hours since the last new phase in this phase
the horns or cusp of the crescent always point away from the sun, the first quarter phase is often
referred to as the half moon because one half of the moon is shaded in a capitol D this phase
marks the moons orbit halfway around the earth, as the moon fills out or waxes the quarter
phase grows into the gibbous moon, the full moon when the moon is 180 degrees across the
sky compared to the sun, the waning gibbous phase is when the full moon wanes or fades, the
last quarter phase is when the full moon fades completely, the monthly cycle of the moon ends
when the moon returns to the new phase. This occurs 29 days after the previous new phase.

In conclusion, the moon is a marvelous celestial body that never ceases to amaze. We are
fortunate to have such a magnificent planet in coexistence with our own.

Harrington, P. (2000). Astronomy for All Ages. Giulford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press.