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Who is the man in the moon? |
Space
Have you ever eaten a potato chip that looked like it had a face on it? Or maybe you’ve gazed up the clouds and made out the shapes of dogs, trains, flowers, and bicycles. People often see shapes of things they recognize in the shadows and texture of other items. – One of the most famous of these is the “man” in the moon!
Throughout history, people have used legends and myths to explain things they didn’t understand. For many years, people didn’t have the science to know the things we now know about the moon. When they looked up at the night’s sky and saw the dark shadows of the different craters and surfaces on the moon, they saw different shapes and faces formed within!
Today, we have names for many of the craters that are often cited as the “parts” that make up the man in the moon. – The dark patches that are often pointed out as the man in the moon’s eyes are Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, while the mouth in this version are the dark patches of Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum!
Of course, there are many other shapes to be seen in the shadows of the moon’s surface – it depends on who you’re asking! – What kinds of shapes do you see up there??
Storytime
The man in the moon is a good example of a story people made up to explain something they couldn’t understand.
Think about something amazing and wondrous, such thunder and lightning. Today, we have the science to understand and explain what causes all of that light and sound, but for hundreds of years, no one knew what was really going on!
If you had to explain something special about how the world works without knowing the scientific explanation, what kind of story would you make up? Think of some stuff that might have seemed even more unbelievable if you couldn’t know why it happened, and the explanations you would come up with!
