The Moon is the Earth's natural satellite which has circled around it for at least four billion years. It is actually a rocky ball about a quarter of the Earth's size and is held in its orbit by mutual gravitational attraction. Scientists believed that the Monn formed when early in the Earth's history, a planet smashed into it. The impact was so great and tremendous that nothing was left of the planet but a few hot splashes thrown back up into space. Within a day of the smash, these splashes had been drawn together by gravity to form the Moon.

The first men on the Moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of the US Apollo 11 mission who landed on the Moon on 21 July 1969. (As Neil Armstrong once said, "This a small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.")

The large dark pitches visible on the Moon's surface are called seas, but in fact they are not seas at all. They are huge plains formed by lava flowing from volcanoes that erupted early on in the Moon's history.

It takes the Moon approximately 27.3 days to circle the Earth, but 29.53 days from one full moon to the next as the Earth moves as well. A lunar month is the 29.53 days cycle. Calendar months are entirely artificial.

As the Moon revolves round the Earth, sometimes it passes right into the Earth's shadow, where sunlight is blocked off. This is a lunar eclipse. So if you look at the Moon during this period of time, you will see the dark disc of the Earth's shadow creeping across the Moon.

The Moon is by far the brightest object in the night sky. However, it does not give off its own light. Hence, it simply reflects off the Sun light to produce moonlight.

The harvest moon is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox (when night and day are of equal length). This moon hangs bright above the eastern horizon for several evenings, providing a good light for harvesters.

 - Why does the sea have tides?

The Moon's gravity draws the oceans into an oval around the Earth, creating a bulge of water on each side of the world. These bulges stay beneath the Moon as the Earth spins around and seem to run around the world, making the tide rise and fall as they pass.

Now, let watch a video on the formation of the Moon:

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6A3BzWdd_o&feature=related