THE MOON 

        Radius: 1,079.6 mi

         Orbital period: 29.5 Earth days

         Gravity: 1.62 m/s²

         Distance to Earth: 238,900 mi.

Age: 4.53 billion years         

·         The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, orbiting at an average distance of 384399 km.

·         It faces Earth always with the same side. This is a result of Earth's gravitational pull having synchronized the Moon's rotation period with its orbital period of 29.5 Earth days.

·         Lunar impact craters are the depressions left behind after an asteroid, meteoroid, or comet collides with the Moon. Though craters are visible on worlds throughout the solar system, lunar craters are special because we can see them close-up, and the relative lack of erosion and other surface processes on the Moon keep them well preserved. 

Lunar phases, the changing appearances of the Moon, are caused by the varying amounts of the Moon's sunlit surface that we see as it orbits Earth, not by the Earth casting a shadow on the Moon