moon facts


The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet
Earth and is Earth's only permanent natural satellite.
It is
the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System.
The Moon formed 4.51 billion years ago.

In October 2017, NASA scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston announced
their finding, based on studies of Moon magma samples retrieved by the Apollo missions, that the Moon had once possessed a
relatively thick atmosphere for a period of 70 million years between 3 and 4 billion years ago. This atmosphere, sourced from gases
ejected from lunar volcanic eruptions, was twice the thickness of that of present-day Mars. The ancient lunar atmosphere was
eventually stripped away by solar winds and dissipated into space.