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The Moon's surface exhibits many other geological features. In addition to mountains, valleys, and impact craters, the following surface features have received names in the Lunar nomenclature , many of them named after a nearby crater or mountain.
Geological studies of the Moon are based on a combination of Earth-based telescope observations, measurements from orbiting spacecraft, lunar samples, and geophysical data. . Six locations were sampled directly during the crewed Apollo program landings from 1969 to 1972, which returned 382 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar rock and lunar soil to Earth [8] In addition, three robotic Soviet Luna ...
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.
NASA calculates that the Earth obscures only about 4 square degrees out of 41,000 square degrees of the sky as seen from the Moon. "This makes the Earth negligible as a shield for the Moon [and] it is likely that each side of the Moon has received equal numbers of impacts, but the resurfacing by lava results in fewer craters visible on the near ...
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 ...
At 1:09 a.m., a partial eclipse begins as the moon enters Earth's umbra and starts to darken. To the naked eye, the moon should look like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk.
The 1956 Tom Swift, Jr. juvenile novel, Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite, features a new moon entering Earth orbit at 50,000 miles (80,000 km) altitude. [51] A 1963 sequel, Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates , has the moon Nestria, also called Little Luna, which was originally an asteroid and was moved into Earth orbit at 50,000 miles (80,000 ...
Charon and Earth’s moon are both a large fraction of the size of the main body they orbit, which is unlike other smaller moons orbiting planets throughout our solar system. (Pluto has four ...