The Moon is Earth's nearest natural satellite. Our Moon is bigger than Planet Pluto. It can be seen clearly with your eyes. For better viewing you can use binoculars, or a telescope. Galileo in 1609 was the first to look at it through a telescope. The Moon is about 4 and a 1/2 billion years old. It is the only object in the solar system visited by humans.
The moon is about one quarter the size of Earth and it has about one-sixth of the Earth's gravity. It has a black sky, has almost no atmosphere due to its weak gravity. Without an atmosphere, there is no wind, no clouds and no rain.
* Distance: Mean distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,000km (238,900 miles)
* Diameter: 3,476km (2,160 miles)
* Mass: 7.35 X 1022 kg. This about one-eightieth of the Earth's mass.
* Moon's rotation: Rotates about its own axis in 27 days and 8 hours, which is about the same time it takes to orbit the earth. Hence the same face of the moon is always facing the Earth. The far side always faces away and cannot be seen from Earth. It has been photographed by spacecraft.
* Escape velocity: 2.38 km/sec
* Moon Surface: It is covered with craters, lava plains, mountains and valleys. No active volcanos.
* Temperature: Ranges from -171?C to 111?C.
* Mass: 0.012 (Earth = 1)
Phasing of our Moon
Our Moon goes through phases during the lunar month. The lunar month is the 29.53 days it takes to go from one new moon to the next. The moon phase is the shape you see which follows the same pattern every four weeks.
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