Mental Floss

MOON

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The meaning of the name "beaver moon" originated with early Americans centuries ago. Here are some more things you should know about the lunar event.

Michele Debczak


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The gravitational pull of the supermoon will team up with that of the sun on August 30 to create super-charged "king" tides around the world.

Michele Debczak






Margaret Hamilton, lead Apollo flight software engineer, in the Apollo Command Module.

When Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the surface of the Moon in July of 1969, software was a relatively new development. In fact, the Moon mission was one of the first times this kind of engineering was used in such a fundamental way. History was being wri

Caitlin Schneider














Matt Cardy/Stringer, Getty Images

It's our closest neighbor in the solar system, but we still have a lot to learn about the Moon—from how it formed to what's on its dark side.

Michele Debczak


NASA, Getty Images

From the first manned Moon landing to Monty Python, here are 50 things marking a half-century on this planet (and beyond).

Jennifer M Wood, Colin Ainsworth