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examining its more enigmatic properties. The facts about the moon are also just as fascinating as its legends. Without the moon, the Earth would spin much faster, would not remain stable on its axis and Earth's days would be very short, negatively affecting life on Earth. Our dependence on it is a well known fact. It is also a well known fact that the moon pulls on the ocean tides and it creates a big tidal bulge on both sides of the Earth; it is also true that the Earth's gravity pulls on the moon. When the moon was first formed, it was made of molten rock and during this time the Earth had a very similar influence on the moon's fiery oceans as it has on our watery ones today. The ocean tides on Earth were then 1000 times greater than they are today. Imagine what that might have looked like! The moon stabilizes the Earth on its axis and therefore helps keep our climate stable. Life on earth depends on this relationship between the two. It is also believed that billions of years ago the moon was much closer to us and over the ages it is slowly moving away from us.

There are so many mysteries regarding our moon. Let's look at one more - why is it that we only see one side of the moon? Over billions of years the moon's spinning rotation has slowed down considerably. The Earth's gravity has slowed down the Moon's rotation until it became gravitationally locked to the Earth. Once this happened, the moon took as long to rotate on its axis as it did to make an orbit around Earth; and so it still orbits and rotates like this today. Astronomers call this synchronous rotation. Because of this, we see the same side of the moon all of the time.

The moon is beautiful and in many respects remains as mysterious to us as it did to ancient people. Some if its mysteries have been explained but there are many that still remain hidden. Perhaps in the future we can travel there and chart its surface and call it home where we can learn much more about it. Even so, there is so much that we still don't understand about the Earth, let alone the moon! So we may keep on wondering about the moon's nocturnal beauty and mystery as we look up in the night sky.

Learn more about this author, Victoria Jeffrey.
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