The Moon Facts for Kids
Earth's Satellite
The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite, or orbiting body. Most astronomers believe that the Moon was formed about 4.51 billion years ago—about 30 million years after the Earth—as the result of a massive impact between the Earth and a planet-sized asteroid, known as Theia.
The Moon Quick Facts
| The Moon | Earth | |
|---|---|---|
| Mass | 7.300 × 1022 kg | 5.972 × 1024 kg |
| Volume | 21,970,000,000 km3 | 1,083,000,000,000 km3 |
| Average Orbital Speed | 3,679 kph | 107,200 kph |
Weirdly Wonderful The Moon Facts for Kids
Busted myth: The dark side of the moon isn't actually dark.
Because the Moon itself rotates as it orbits Earth, only 60% of its surface is ever visible from the Earth. That is why there is a dark side of the moon. In fact, however, the far side of the moon is illuminated by the Sun just as much as the near side!
The Moon isn't the only moon in the solar system.
As of 2019, more than 200 moons have been discovered (Jupiter has 67 known moons and Saturn 62).
The Moon has mountains, just like Earth.
The tallest is Mons Huygens, which, at about 4,700 m tall, is about half the height of Mt. Everest (8,848 m).
It takes over a second for moonlight to reach Earth.
It takes about 1.255 seconds for moonlight to reach Earth. That means that when we look at the moon, we're really seeing what the moon looked like over a second ago!
