The lede as of this revision is rather straggly and long, and has a lot of infobox-level information. It's a really interesting satellite - this should be highlighted. Here is my suggestion: Iridia ( talk) 01:51, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
The Moon is
Earth's only
natural satellite and is the
fifth largest satellite in the
Solar System. It is the largest moon in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after
Io. It is also in
synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face; this
near side is marked with dark volcanic
maria among the bright ancient crustal highlands and prominent
impact craters. Despite being the brightest object in the sky after the
Sun, its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to
coal. The Moon's gravitational influence produces the
ocean tides and the
minute lengthening of the calendar year. The Moon's current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth, causes the Moon and Sun to be the same size in the sky: this allows the Moon to exactly cover the Sun in
total solar eclipses, a very rare cosmic event.
The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have made a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972–the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. These missions returned over 400 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a detailed geological understanding of the origin of the Moon 4.5 billion years ago in a giant impact, the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history. The Moon has since been visited only by unmanned spacecraft, but these have come from many countries: since 2004, Europe, Japan, China, India and the United States have successfully sent lunar orbiters. These spacecraft have confirmed the discovery of water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. Future manned missions to the Moon are planned but not yet underway; the Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.
The lede as of this revision is rather straggly and long, and has a lot of infobox-level information. It's a really interesting satellite - this should be highlighted. Here is my suggestion: Iridia ( talk) 01:51, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
The Moon is
Earth's only
natural satellite and is the
fifth largest satellite in the
Solar System. It is the largest moon in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after
Io. It is also in
synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face; this
near side is marked with dark volcanic
maria among the bright ancient crustal highlands and prominent
impact craters. Despite being the brightest object in the sky after the
Sun, its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to
coal. The Moon's gravitational influence produces the
ocean tides and the
minute lengthening of the calendar year. The Moon's current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth, causes the Moon and Sun to be the same size in the sky: this allows the Moon to exactly cover the Sun in
total solar eclipses, a very rare cosmic event.
The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have made a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972–the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. These missions returned over 400 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a detailed geological understanding of the origin of the Moon 4.5 billion years ago in a giant impact, the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history. The Moon has since been visited only by unmanned spacecraft, but these have come from many countries: since 2004, Europe, Japan, China, India and the United States have successfully sent lunar orbiters. These spacecraft have confirmed the discovery of water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. Future manned missions to the Moon are planned but not yet underway; the Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.