Interesting facts about the moon that you probably did not know about!

While a lot is known about the moon already, we bet you wouldn’t know about these interesting facts about it…

Whenever we look up at the sky on a full-moon night, we often wonder is there anything that is yet to be discovered about the moon. Well, the answer is yes. There are several things that are yet to be unknown to the human kind about moon, sun, planets and the space in general. Man first set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, and yet there is so much more left to explore and know about the giant white ball. So here are a few interesting things that you might not know about the moon from your science textbooks…

Moon does not orbit the Earth – Contrary to what we have been learning from our science textbooks, the moon actually does not go around the earth even though it might seem so due to its seasonal shifting positions. The moon’s path is in fact determined by the sun. Its orbit is just in tandem with the Earth and that can be a reason why it looks like it goes around the earth’s orbit.

Earth’s only natural satellite – Believe it or not, the moon is the only natural satellite that our Earth has. This celestial body’s orbit around our planet is shaped like a somewhat squashed circle which is called the ellipse. In fact, the moon is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System.

Only 12 people have ever landed on the moon – While several attempts have been made to land on moon and explore it, only 12 people from the United States have been able to actually walk on the surface of moon. It started with Neil Armstrong in 1969. He landed on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, and ended with Gene Cernan, who landed in 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission.

Formed due to an impact – Several scientists around the world believe that it’s likely a Mars-sized body collided with Earth about 4.5 billion years ago and that impact slowly created what we now know as the moon.

We see the same side of moon – Did you know that the moon is in is in synchronous rotation with Earth! This is why we only always see one side of the moon even though it may seem like we’re seeing the entirety of it.