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The Earth–Moon system contains an anomalously high angular momentum, meaning the momentum contained in Earth's rotation, the Moon's rotation and the Moon revolving around Earth is significantly higher than the other terrestrial planets. A giant impact might have supplied this excess momentum.
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.
Conversely, the fission model, while it can account for the similarity in chemical composition and the lack of iron in the Moon, cannot adequately explain its high orbital inclination and, in particular, the large amount of angular momentum in the Earth–Moon system, more than any other planet–satellite pair in the Solar System. [3]
This increases the Moon's angular momentum around Earth (and moves the Moon to a higher orbit with a lower orbital speed). Secondly, there is an apparent increase in the Moon's angular rate of orbital motion (when measured in terms of mean solar time). This arises from Earth's loss of angular momentum and the consequent increase in length of ...
The Sun's gravitational effect on the Moon is more than twice that of Earth's on the Moon; consequently, the Moon's trajectory is always convex [25] [26] (as seen when looking Sunward at the entire Sun–Earth–Moon system from a great distance outside Earth–Moon solar orbit), and is nowhere concave (from the same perspective) or looped.
Full Moon. The full moon marks the high point of the lunar cycle. This is when drama unfolds and life-altering moments take place. Think of the full moon as the most climactic part of a movie ...
"Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." —Anton Chekhov "Cheap little rhymes, a cheap little tune, are sometimes as dangerous as a sliver of the moon."
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.