Moons · Space Codex
The Moon
A dry, airless world about a quarter of Earth's width, probably assembled from debris after a Mars-sized body struck the young Earth.
Earth's only natural satellite
At a glance
Key points
Its gravity drives our tides and steadies Earth's axial tilt.
- Artemis II carried humans 406,770 km from Earth in April 2026, a new record
- Reflects only about 12% of the sunlight that hits it
- Surface swings from −178 °C to 117 °C between night and day
Interior
Seismometers left by Apollo crews recorded moonquakes for eight years. Together with orbital gravity maps they show a crust about 30–50 km thick, a thick rocky mantle and a small iron-rich core only about a fifth of the Moon's radius. The Moon's low density, 3.34 g/cm³, matches Earth's mantle far better than Earth as a whole, one of the clues behind the giant-impact origin.
Surface
The bright highlands are ancient crust of anorthosite, saturated with craters. The dark maria are basalt lava that flooded giant impact basins more than three billion years ago, mostly on the near side. On the far side lies the South Pole–Aitken basin, roughly 2,500 km across, one of the largest impact structures in the Solar System. Inside permanently shadowed craters near the poles, temperatures stay low enough for water ice to survive.
Exploration
Twelve Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 and returned 382 kg of samples. In April 2026 Artemis II flew four astronauts around the far side and set a human distance record of 406,770 km. NASA has since re-scoped Artemis III into a crewed docking test in Earth orbit targeted for mid-2027; the next landing is planned for Artemis IV in 2028. China's Chang'e-7 south-pole mission was postponed out of its 2026 window.
What we still don't know
How much water ice the polar craters hold and in what form, why the near and far sides are so different, and whether the Moon formed from mostly impactor material or mostly Earth material.
Missions
- 1969–1972
Apollo 11–17
NASACompletedSix crewed landings; 12 astronauts walked on the Moon.
- 2009–
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASAActiveHigh-resolution mapping of the whole Moon, including permanently shadowed craters.
- 1–10 Apr 2026
First crewed lunar flyby since 1972; set a human distance record of 406,770 km (252,756 mi).
- Target mid-2027
Re-scoped in Feb 2026 to a crewed low-Earth-orbit rendezvous and docking test with the commercial landers. Crew named 9 Jun 2026.
- Target 2028
Planned first Artemis crewed landing, near the lunar south pole.
- Postponed
South-pole water-ice mission (orbiter, lander, rover, hopper); postponed out of its Aug 2026 window with no new date announced.
First-hand · our 3D model
How we render it
The Moon starts with a light colour map from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera (LROC). When you select it, a 4K LROC map and LOLA laser-altimeter elevation data load, so craters and maria gain real relief.
Its size and distance are art-directed rather than scaled, so it stays in frame beside Earth, but its orbit is real in direction: prograde, inclined 5.16° to the ecliptic, with the near side always facing Earth.
Moon sizes and orbits are compressed so a whole system fits on screen, but never reordered: each moon is drawn at 0.72 × (true size ratio)^0.6 of its planet, capped so no large moon is drawn bigger than it really is, and orbit distances are log-compressed into a band that clears the planet's rings. Orbital periods keep their true ratios, every moon is tidally locked, and on lighter devices only the two largest moons of each planet are drawn.
Related entries
- EarthThe only known world with life
- Artemis programmeNASA's return to the Moon
- Chang'e-7China's lunar south-pole mission
Sources
- NASA: Artemis II milestones (opens in a new tab)
- NASA: Artemis III (opens in a new tab)
- JPL Solar System Dynamics: satellite physical parameters (opens in a new tab)
- JPL Solar System Dynamics: satellite mean orbital elements (opens in a new tab)
- NASA NSSDC Moon Fact Sheet (opens in a new tab)
- NASA Science: Moon facts (opens in a new tab)
Last reviewed against these sources. Built from public NASA, ESA and JPL data; not affiliated with or endorsed by any agency.