The same side of the Moon always faces the sun as it goes around the Earth. The half of the Moon that is turned away from the Sun is always dark.		But the Moon as seen from the Earth shows changing shapes. These shapes of the Moon repeat themselves each month of the year.

The Moon takes one month to orbit the Earth.

The Moon spins because of Newton's law: a body in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. The accepted theory is that the Moon had spin when it was formed, and because of the conservation of angular momentum, it will continue to spin - though gravitational tidal forces have slowed it down over the eons.*

A blue Moon is when you can see a full Moon twice in one month. The blue Moon is the second full moon of the month.

Some of the Moon's craters are big enough to fit a city.

Many of the Moon's craters are surrounded by lines called rays. These rays are made by dust that was thrown out when meteorites hit.

The dark patches that you can see are lava that came out of volcanoes and that cooled on the Moon's surface.

The Moon has a lot of mountains. The Moon's highest mountain is almost the same size as Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth.

The Moon has no atmosphere to stop heat or keep heat in so the Sun's rays hit the Moon and heat it up so the temperatures can get up to 123°C (253°F).

When the Sun is not hitting the Moon directly the temperatures can fall to 123°C (-206°F).

In 1969, Apollo 11 became the first space craft to land people on the moon.

12 American astronauts have walked on the Moon.

Click here to learn about eclipses.

* Information supplied by Marianne Dyson
Author, Space Station Science