22.8 days old
43.6 percent
4/6/2018
By John Hageman
At about 1/4th of the size of the Earth, (click here) the Moon affects our planet in a number of ways. Since it is a formal name, the Moon is always properly capitalized.
The gravitational pull of the Moon causes tides, which creates bulges where the oceans face the Moon and on the opposite side of the Earth and lowers the water level of the ocean away from the bulge.
The daily difference in low to high tides can range from 3-to-50 feet, depending upon location. Incidentally, the effect of the Moon on Great Lakes and other inland water tides is less than two inches.
The Earth also pulls on the Moon, but since the sun is stronger, the Moon is slowly getting further away from our planet, which causes it to travel in an elliptical, not round orbit.
Before electricity was harnessed, lights illuminated the evening sky and television was invented, citizens throughout the world spent time gazing at the stars and other heavenly bodies to try to understand their place in the Universe....
