Digging through an old photo album on his grandfather’s bookshelf, Eunwoo found a black-and-white photo and pointed at the footprint left by the man in the spacesuit.
“Grandpa, is this a real footprint on the Moon?”
“It sure is. I watched that exact moment live on television, back in 1969.”
“Whoa, but is this footprint still there right now?”
“That’s the amazing part, it’s probably still there this very moment. Even after more than 56 years.”
“How does it not disappear? The footprints in the snow outside our house vanish after just one day.”
“Footprints disappear on Earth because of wind and rain. But the Moon has no air at all, so there’s no wind and no rain.”
“If there’s no air, why can’t wind exist?”
“Wind is just air moving around. If there’s no air to move in the first place, wind simply can’t happen at all.”
“Grandpa, how many people have actually walked on the Moon?”
“Only twelve, ever. Between 1969 and 1972, across six Apollo missions. Nobody has walked on the Moon’s surface since.”
“So all twelve of their footprints are still up there right now?”
“Exactly. Across six different landing sites, their footprints are still sitting there exactly as they left them.”
“Is there anything else left behind besides footprints?”
“Tons of stuff. Landing equipment, science instruments, even a golf ball. One astronaut actually played golf on the Moon.”
“He played golf?”
“Yes, in 1971, an Apollo 14 astronaut hit a golf ball on the Moon, and with no air resistance, it flew way farther than it ever could on Earth. That golf ball is probably still sitting right where it landed.”
“Don’t the spacesuits or equipment rot away?”
“They don’t. Things rot or corrode on Earth mostly because of oxygen and moisture in the air, and the Moon has neither, so everything just stays preserved.”
“So is there absolutely nothing that could erase that footprint?”
“There’s one thing. If a tiny meteorite happened to strike that exact spot, it could erase it. But the odds of that actually happening are incredibly small.”
“So that footprint could still be there millions of years from now?”
“Scientists think so. Some even say it might still be there long after Earth itself is gone.”
“So the moment you watched on TV is still sitting up there, exactly as it happened.”
“That’s right. There’s something that always feels special to me about a single moment staying frozen in time like that, never fading away.”
Eunwoo gently touched the footprint in the photo with his fingertip. It was only a photograph, but somehow it felt like he was touching real lunar dust.
“The Moon has no wind or rain, so footprints left by astronauts will still be there millions of years from now.”
Your Turn Now
Share with someone today what you remember.
- Why do footprints disappear on Earth?
- Why doesn’t the Moon have wind?
- What’s almost the only thing that could erase a footprint on the Moon?
(Check when ready: 1. Wind and rain. 2. There’s no air to move. 3. A tiny meteorite striking that exact spot.)
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