Facts about the Moon
Facts about the Moon
| The time moon takes to spin once around on its own axis—takes the same amount of time as the moon takes to complete one orbit of the Earth, about 27.3 days. This means the moon's rotation is synchronized in a way that causes the moon to show the same face to the Earth at all times. One hemisphere always faces us, while the other always faces away. The lunar far side or the dark side has been photographed only from spacecraft. |  |
As you read this, the Moon is moving away from us. Each year, the Moon steals some of Earth's rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed, the Moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It's now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.
High tides on Earth are caused by the moon's gravity.
Our moon is bigger than Pluto.
Although the moon is one-fourth the width of the Earth, it would take 81 moons to make up the same mass as our planet.
By measuring the ages of lunar rocks, we know that the moon is about 4.6 billion years old, or about the same age as Earth.
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