the Moon (Courtesy to Microsoft Encarta for this photograph.)

The Moon is very similar to our own planet Earth. It has many of the same materials as Earth does, and it also has some materials that are not found on Earth. The Moon is also a history book of Earth because whatever happens to the Moon also happens to the Earth. Scientists have sent many missions to the Moon to retrieve samples of rock so that they can study the Moon and in turn, studying the Earth. As they learn more about the Moon, scientists discovered why some of the material amounts were different on the different places. They came up with a theory that told of a Mars sized object colliding with Earth when the Earth was still all molten lava. Both of the planets' surfaces melted and afterwards created a rings of small moons around Earth. These small moons collided and eventually became the moon we now see today in our sky.

Many different times people sent space probes to the Moon. This was first started by the former Soviet Union in the 1950s. This was what began the "Space Race." The Soviet Union had already sent somebody into space, Yuri Gagarin, before the United States did. With John F. Kennedy as president, he wanted people to go to the Moon as their ultimate goal. At that time NASA created many missions to space in preparation for the Apollo missions. Apollo 11 was the first landing on the Moon that involved humans in it. This started a whole new revolution of space exploration.

As we watch the Moon go around Earth, we only see one face of it. This face of the Moon goes in cycles that we now know as phases. People based their planting cycles and sometimes their calendars around the lunar phases. This is because the lunar phases repeat approximately every month. There are many different phases of the Moon, but the seven most prominent are listed below with a picture to go along with it.

Phase	Example Image
New Moon
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Crescent
Last Quarter
Waning Gibbous