The Moon

Earth's natural satellite

Earth's only natural satellite is a little over a quarter of its width and circles it at 384,400 km on average. It turns on its axis once per orbit, so it always shows us the same face: its far side was first photographed in 1959, by the Soviet probe Luna 3.

Its dark seas are plains of basalt, lava that flooded vast impact basins billions of years ago; the bright highlands are older still. Here its surface is lit by the Sun as it stands on the date shown, and the sites of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17, the first and the last of the six crewed landings, are marked.