The Sun

Official Name: The Moon

Other Names: Luna, Mond, and Selene

Size: The Moon has a radius of 1,737.5 kilometers, 1,079.6 miles. It is less than one third of the width of Earth.

Distance from Earth: 384,400 kilometers or 238,855 miles

Myth Associated: There was a powerful and rich chief who had a beautiful young daughter. The chief enjoyed looking up at the sun and moon and decided that he wanted them for himself. He found a way to take the sun and moon from the sky and he hung them in his house. The land soon became dark everywhere. There was no longer any light to hunt, fish, or collect firewood. One day, a trickster raven learned that the chief had taken the sun and moon and kept them for himself. The raven saw how the chief adored his daughter and devised a plan to get the sun and moon back. One day, while the young chief’s daughter was at the stream collecting water, the raven turned into a fish and jumped into the stream. When the daughter stopped to take a drink of water from the stream, the raven/fish swam quickly into the daughter’s mouth. Unknowingly, the daughter ate the fish/raven. The raven then magically turned himself into a baby and the girl became pregnant with a baby boy. The chief was thrilled with this and spoiled his new grandson, which was secretly the raven. One day the grandson was throwing a fit. The chief asked the boy what he wanted to calm him down. The boy pointed to the sun and moon hung in the house. The chief took them down and gave them to the boy. There the boy went outside and played with the sun and moon. He threw them up into the sky so high they never came down. When the chief went outside to check on his grandson, the boy turned back into a raven and flew away in the new lit sky.

Physical Properties: The structure of the moon consists of three layers: the core, mantle, and crust. The core is solid and rich in iron. This solid core is surrounded by a partial liquid shell made out of molten iron. The mantle is made of different minerals composed of magnesium, iron, silicon, and oxygen atoms. The crust is the what we see in the night sky. It is made mostly of oxygen, silicon, magnesium iron, calcium, and aluminum. There have been traces of titanium, uranium, thorium, potassium, and hydrogen found in the crust, but in minuscule amounts. The face of the moon we see is called the near side. It is divided into two areas: the Lunar Highlands and the Maria. The Lunar Highlands are the light areas of the near side and higher in altitude. The Maria are lower in altitude and are the darker areas of the moon. The reason why the Maria are dark is because the material is actually solidified lava from when the moon contained active volcanoes. Both the Maria and Highlands contain craters. More craters can be found in the Highlands because it is exposed to more meteor activity.

Mission Overview: On January 7, 1968, the United States of America launched Surveyor 7. Surveyor 7 was a lunar spacecraft that was sent to the moon to collect samples of the surface. This was to help determine which area of the moon was better for landing a heavier spacecraft and a suitable spot for astronauts to visit. The spacecraft landed in the lunar highlands near the crater, Tycho. When the rover landed, scientists used a remote control to use the rover’s scoop to collect rocks. The scientists were learning how much these rocks weighed based on how much current was necessary to lift each rock. Surveyor 7 took photographs of the surface and the rock samples. When the scientists got ahold of the photos, the photographs showed that the rocks had signs of molten activity. This helped determine that at one point, the Moon contained active volcanoes. The mission was deemed a success and Surveyor 7 returned to Earth on February 21, 1968. With this knowledge, the United States became one step closer to sending men to the moon.