Why is the temperature of the moon so variable during the day and night?
September 30, 20243 Mins Read
The temperature of the moon is around 120 degrees Celsius during the day but drops to around minus 130 degrees Celsius at night. Why? Why is there so much variation in temperature? Suppose you want to go to the moon and come out a little. It may seem impossible at the moment, but it may be possible in the future. Maybe within a day you can go to the moon and come back to earth. But you don't want to come back in one day. He wants to spend two days on the moon and look around and then return. Then you definitely need to take some clothes with you. But what kind of clothes to take? Winter or summer?

Moon temperature

There is reason to ask such a question. The temperature of the moon is around minus 130 degrees Celsius at night but around 120 degrees Celsius during the day. The question is, why? Why is the temperature of the moon such a manipulation? This is due to the absence of atmosphere on the moon. As Earth has an atmosphere, the Moon does not. The atmosphere acts like a blanket over the Earth. Retains heat. Sunlight can enter the Earth, but not all of it can escape due to the atmosphere.

And sunlight keeps the earth warm. As a result, there is no such big change in the Earth's temperature. Only in winter the length of the night increases a little, so the sunlight coming during the day cannot provide enough warmth. That's why we have winter. Read more about: What is Earth's average temperature and does hot and cold depend on Earth's annual motion?

Since the Moon does not have an atmosphere like the Earth, the Moon cannot retain its temperature. Therefore, when the sun shines, the moon becomes very warm. When the lights go out again, that means the temperature drops to about minus 130 degrees at night.

There is another reason for the Moon's changing temperature. The moon takes about 27 Earth days to rotate once on its axis. As a result, there is sunlight on the surface of the moon for about 13 days, and darkness for 13 days. When there is sunlight, the temperature rises so much that water at this temperature will boil and evaporate. Again, when it is dark, it means that the temperature drops so much at night that it freezes.

Keeping this dramatic change in temperature in mind, the US space research agency NASA developed spacesuits for astronauts. Inside the spacesuit are heaters and cooling systems. As a result, astronauts do not have any problem with this change in temperature on the moon's surface.

According to NASA, the normal temperature on the moon's surface can drop from 120 degrees Celsius to minus 130 degrees Celsius. But the temperature of the moon's pole can drop to minus 253 degrees Celsius! Because sunlight never reaches this region.

People are thinking of living permanently on the moon in the future. NASA is working towards that goal. The agency has already announced that it will send people to the moon again by 2026. For that they launched the Artemis program. The first mission of this program has already been successfully completed.

The second mission, Artemis 2, will be completed in December this year or January next year. And in 2026, the Artemis 3 mission will land on the South Pole of the Moon. After that, it will gradually try to establish a permanent settlement by creating a colony there. Previously, the Apollo program had humans on the moon longer than this time, the Artemis 3 mission.