Earth, Sun and Moon Notes

LANDING ON THE MOON

•           The moon has been explored many times in the last half century.

•           We probably know that astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969.

•           And the astronauts landed on the moon more than once.

•           The first men to go to the moon were the crew of the American space mission, Apollo 11.

•           Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Florida, United States of America, on July 16, 1969.

•           The rocket that carried it into space was Saturn 5.

ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES

•         Satellites are the objects that orbit a planet.

•         The moon is a natural satellite.

•         Artificial satellites are man-made objects that orbit the Earth.

•         In order to launch satellites into space, we need to overcome the Earth's gravity.

•         This is achieved by launching satellites by powerful rockets.

•         The first artificial satellite was Sputnik I launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

•         Now almost fifty years later, there are thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth at various heights.

ECLIPSES

•         To be eclipsed means to be hidden.

•         Sometimes, the sun, moon, and the Earth come into position as though they are all in a straight line.

•         At times, the Earth comes between the moon and the sun and at other times, the moon comes between the sun and the Earth.

•         At such times, the one in the middle casts a shadow, which partially or wholly hides the other from the sun.

•         This is called an eclipse.

Figure 21: (a) Solar eclipse

(b) Lunar eclipse