Man on the Moon

[Oliver]

If the skies are clear this weekend, you’ll be able to see an uncommonly enormous and spectacular Moon. On Saturday at 11:34 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the Moon will reach perigee — the point at which the Moon’s elliptical orbit puts it as close as it ever gets to Earth. A minute later the Earth, Moon and sun will also line up. The result: a “Supermoon” that appears 14% bigger and 30% bigger than any other full Moon. That’s bigger than it looked in the 1987’s Moonstruck, when Cher gave Nicolas Cage a good smack.

In celebration of the May 5th Supermoon, here are some super Moon facts.

The Moon used to rotate relative to Earth, but over billions of years our gravity slowed it to a stop. Now only about 60% of the Moon’s surface — the side with the Man on the Moon and his badly cratered complexion — ever faces us. But there isn’t really a “dark side of the moon” since the sun does rise on the far side we don’t see.
Buzz Aldrin, the second of only 12 men ever to walk on the Moon, has struggled with depression, a condition to which he is genetically predisposed; both his mother and his grandfather took their own lives. His mother’s maiden name: Marion Moon.
The moon experiences earthquakes which astronomers can detect from Earth.
The root of the word lunatic comes from luna, the Latin for moon. Centuries ago it was believed that periodic insanity was caused by changing phases of the moon. The same root is borrowed for the slang loony (though Bugs, Daffy and friends spell their cartoon series Looney Tunes, with an extra “e”).
Does the Moon really make us loony? Though many hospital workers and first responders have noted the “Transylvania effect” of a full Moon, there’s little scientific data supporting the idea that moon phases are related to stats for violent behavior. But a study back in 2000 did find that during full-Moon phases, the condition of a group of patients with schizophrenia notably deteriorated.
Michael Jackson debuted his moonwalk dance step on March 25, 1983.
Maternity ward nurses have long claimed that new deliveries cluster around full-Moon phases, and in 1997 an Italian study lent credence to the claim. If the Moon can pull on the oceans, it seems we should expect some effect on our own bodies since they’re made up of about 70% water.
Another study found that animals tend to bite people more during a full Moon. Werewolves get especially testy.

[astronut]

Sooo.. you're saying I should go fishing tomorrow night... Right??? I mean like it said, animals tend to bite more during a full moon! (Like I really need an excuse to go fishing!)

[SDB777]

Seems weird but....the moon is going to keep getting smaller over your lifetime. It is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about three inches a year. Which will cause the Earths day to get longer, until it comes to a stop. But that might take awhile.

The moon is just over 10 feet further from the Earth since I was born.



Scott B

[Oliver]

A longer day might be helpful when it comes to getting everything done each week.

Which will cause the Earths day to get longer, until it comes to a stop.

There are three ways for us to actually measure the effects of tidal friction.

* Measure the change in the length of the lunar month over time.

This can be accomplished by examining the thickness of tidal deposits preserved in rocks, called tidal rhythmites, which can be billions of years old, although measurements only exist for rhythmites that are 900 million years old. As far as I can find (I am not a geologist!) these measurements have only been done since the early 90's.

* Measure the change in the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

This is accomplished in modern times by bouncing lasers off reflectors left on the surface of the Moon by the Apollo astronauts. Less accurate measurements were obtained in the early 70's.

* Measure the change in the rotational period of the Earth over time.