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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, orbiting at an average distance of 384 399 km (238,854 mi; about 30 times Earth's diameter). It faces Earth always with the same side . This is a result of Earth's gravitational pull having synchronized the Moon's rotation period ( lunar day ) with its orbital period ( lunar month ) of 29.5 Earth days.
The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
The orbit of a satellite of Earth fundamentally depends on the gravity of the Earth–Moon system, whereas the orbit of a co-orbiting object would negligibly change if Earth and the Moon were suddenly removed because a quasi-satellite is orbiting the Sun on an Earth-like orbit in the vicinity of Earth. [29]
A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth, and moon align so that the moon passes into Earth's shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire moon falls within the darkest part of Earth's shadow ...
Blue Ghost is expected to begin its hourlong descent to the moon a little after 2 a.m. ET on Sunday. NASA will broadcast a livestream beginning at 2:20 a.m. ET on NASA TV.. The spacecraft is ...
The Moon differs from most regular satellites of other planets in that its orbital plane is closer to the ecliptic plane instead of its primary's (in this case, Earth's equatorial plane). The Moon's orbital plane is inclined by about 5.1° with respect to the ecliptic plane, whereas Earth's equatorial plane is tilted by about 23.4° with ...
Blue Ghost, which left Earth's orbit behind a few days before entering lunar orbit Feb. 13, completed its third and final engine burn Sunday night to position it as close to the moon as it can get ...
The Moon orbiting around Earth (observed by the Deep Space Climate Observatory). A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite).