Walter Zaleman, age 10, Of Highland Park, N.J., for his question:

Does it rain on the moon?

One day on the moon is as long as 14 calendar days on Earth, and the brilliant daytime sunshine is hot Enough to sizzle you to a crisp. The lunar night is as long as the lunar day, when the nighttime temperature is cold Enough to chill you to the bone. But the only weather on the moon is either extreme heat or cold.

Our weather is created in the restless layer of air that hugs close to the surface of the globe. This lower atmosphere creates winds, storms, hail, rain, snow and s1eet. Rain is impossible without an atmosphere, and our golden moon has none. Therefore, it has no rain, snow or stormy weather as we do.