The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after Io. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face; the near side is marked with dark volcanic maria among the bright ancient crustal highlands and prominent impact craters. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, although its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to coal. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have since ancient times made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, the calendar, art and mythology. The Moon's gravitational influence produces the ocean tides and the minute lengthening of the day. The Moon's current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth, causes it to be the same size in the sky as the Sun—allowing the Moon to cover the Sun precisely in total solar eclipses.

The Moon is the only celestial body on which humans have made a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972—the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. These missions returned over 380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a detailed geological understanding of the Moon's origins (it is thought to have formed some 4.5 billion years ago in a giant impact), the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history.

Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by unmanned spacecraft, notably by Soviet Lunokhod rovers. Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States, and the European Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters. These spacecraft have contributed to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. Future manned missions to the Moon are planned but not yet underway; the Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It has a diameter of 3,474 kilometres (2,159 miles) and a mean distance to the Earth of 384,403 kilometres (238,857 miles). The Moon is also a major player in causing tidal effects on Earth.

Sourced

• I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges.
  • Neil Armstrong, Apollo mission press conference

• The moving Moon went up the sky, And no where did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• The silver light, which, hallowing tree and tower, Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws A loving languor which is not repose.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto I

• There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun.
  • Gerry Driscoll, Pink Floyd, "Eclipse", The Dark Side of the Moon

• Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.
  • Ecclesiastes 12:1-2

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Sat Jul 24 16:09:57 2010