Moon Wallpaper, #1656

The Moon (Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System.The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon's diameter is 3,474 km, a little more than a quarter that of the Earth. This means that the Moon's volume is about 2 percent that of Earth and the pull of gravity at its surface about 17 percent that of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases that repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).Unlike the Moons of other planets, the Moon of the Earth has no proper English name other than "the Moon" (capitalized).Small variations (libration) in the angle from which the Moon is seen allow about 59% of its surface to be seen from the earth (but only half at any instant).The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth with respect to the fixed stars (its sidereal period) about once every 27.3 days. However, since the Earth is moving in its orbit about the Sun at the same time, it takes slightly longer for the Moon to show its same phase to Earth, which is about 29.5 days (its synodic period). Unlike most satellites of other planets, the Moon orbits near the ecliptic and not the Earth's equatorial plane. It is the largest Moon in the solar system relative to the size of its planet. (Charon is larger relative to the dwarf planet Pluto.) The natural satellites orbiting other planets are called "Moons", after Earth's Moon.The Moon appears larger when close to the horizon. This is a purely psychological effect (see Moon illusion). It is actually about 1.5% smaller when the Moon is near the horizon than when it is high in the sky (because it is farther away by up to one Earth radius).The far side of the Moon remained completely unknown until the Luna 3 probe was launched in 1959, and was extensively mapped by the Lunar Orbiter program in the 1960s.