Sanal Moon
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Learn About the Moon

Our only natural satellite — 4.5 billion years of history, written in craters and seas of basalt.

  • ✦The Moon was likely born 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-sized body called Theia slammed into the young Earth.
  • ✦It drifts about 3.8 cm farther from Earth every year — measured with lasers bounced off mirrors left by Apollo astronauts.
  • ✦Astronaut footprints can last millions of years: there is no wind or rain to erase them.
  • ✦The Moon has 'moonquakes' that can last over an hour, ringing the ground like a bell.
  • ✦Lunar dust is sharp as broken glass and smells like spent gunpowder, according to Apollo crews.
  • ✦Earth's days are slowly getting longer because the Moon's tides act as a brake on our planet's spin.
  • ✦From the Moon, Earth hangs almost motionless in the sky and shows phases — a 'full Earth' is 40× brighter than a full Moon.
  • ✦A total solar eclipse is possible only because the Sun is 400× wider than the Moon — and 400× farther away.

37.9M km²

Surface area — about the size of Asia

384,400 km

Average distance from Earth

1,737 km

Mean radius

1/6 g

Surface gravity (1.62 m/s²)

27.3 days

One rotation = one orbit (tidal lock)

−173 / +127 °C

Night and day temperature

01

Near side & far side

The Moon is tidally locked, so the same hemisphere always faces Earth. The near side is dominated by dark, smooth maria; the far side — first photographed in 1959 — is rugged, heavily cratered highland with very few seas.

02

Maria — the seas of basalt

The dark patches are ancient lava plains that filled giant impact basins 3–3.8 billion years ago. Early astronomers mistook them for oceans, which is why we still call them Mare Imbrium, Mare Tranquillitatis and so on.

03

Craters & highlands

The bright highlands are older crust covered by countless impact craters. Young craters like Tycho and Copernicus have bright rays of ejecta visible from Earth with binoculars.

04

The poles

Craters near the south pole, such as Shackleton, contain regions of permanent shadow that may hold water ice — the most sought-after destination for future bases.

05

Human footprints

Twelve astronauts walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 during six Apollo missions. In 2019 China's Chang'e 4 made the first soft landing on the far side.

Landmarks

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