Moon is round like a big, shiny cookie Moon is round because gravity acts like a cozy hug Gravity has been pulling stuff down for billions of years Big gas clouds clumped up just like pancakes drying in the sun Tiny bits of dust stuck together and grew bigger and bigger They grew so fast it was like a race where the winners got the cup The most popular shape in the sky is the oil drum Planets orbit around the sun like potty training dogs and cats Some move fast like speedometers reading 100 miles per hour Some move slow like creepers creeping across a porch in winter The closest planet to Earth is Mercury Mercury is the runner in the game of solar system sprint It has the shortest year and the shortest day in the whole bunch Its year takes only 88 Earth days to complete a full circle Its day is only 59 Earth days long so it does a spin twice That’s why we never see the same face of it every single night Earth is the only one with a solid surface and a crisp atmosphere We can stand on it and touch the ground safely without hitting a wall The air feels thin in the silver disk of our moon There is little oxygen to hold our lungs and our spirits So we breathe our oxygen out in the warm, dusty glow When the night sky clears up, stars start to show up like friendly ghosts They float there in the dark with their lanterns all lit up Some are bright as a penny, others dim as a match The big ones are the sun and the moon and the Earth The small ones are the planets and their little moons A few of these small ones have their own space ghosts The distance between Earth and Moon is about 384,000 kilometers That’s a road trip of 225 million miles in a straight line To cover that distance takes about 1.3 days for a fast car For a slow bus it would take about three full weeks To orbit the Earth takes about 27 days for the moon If you were a kid on a swing lesson you’d know the lesson You have to swing back and forth or the ride will end The moon is just a planet hanging there on a string of space wire It goes around us without touching the ground or the air It does not have a real solid floor to stand on for a long time We only see the side that is facing us at any given moment But the back side is where the back sleeps and the rain comes If the moon fell straight down it would take about two weeks to hit the ground It would take about 1.3 seconds to reach the surface of Earth So the fall is short and the distance is very less We can see the moon from anywhere on our planet From the top of a mountain or from a high-rise building But the view from the top of the world looks cooler Because the ground is steeper and the horizon is sharper In the middle of the night the sky turns into a canvas Where the ink of the stars is dry and smooth as a sieve Gazelle stars in the east and majestic ones in the west Some are so bright they can be seen even when it is cloudy Some are so dim they need a telescope to see the details There are hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way galaxy They are all made of the same stuff as us but far apart They are like cousins who got lost in the distance We can point them with our eyes without ever touching anything The nearest star system is called Alpha Centauri It is about four light years away from our sun That means it took 4 years for light to get to us at the end Light travels way faster than the speed of a walking human So we see the stars as they were when they started glowing long ago The moon always shows the same face to us It is because of something called the tide pulling on it The tides are shaped by the gravitational waltz of Earth and Moon Earth spins fast around its axis so the side faces us gets dark The days on Earth make the days on the moon pass by fast So the moon's rotation matches its orbit around us perfectly This is called synchronous rotation and it is a common trick For other planets it is a bit different and they don't always match Jupiter spins super fast and hides its dark side sometimes Mars is slower and looks a bit sleepy when we look at it The seasons on Earth are caused by Earth wiggling on its tilt Like a spinning top that can lean far away or straight to the sun When it leans toward the sun we get the hot summer days When it leans away we get the cool winter nights with crisp air The tides happen twice a day because of the moon's pull It goes under us and then comes back up on the other side We can watch the sun sets and the moon rises in the same spot But the moon moves so slowly that the sunrise does not match the moonrise It shifts by about 50 minutes every single month So the full moon does not always happen on the same night Last year the full moon was in the winter and next year it will be in spring If the moon didn't move at all it would never get back to us It is like a bicycle wheel that keeps turning always in the same direction The speed of rotation is about 12,000 miles per hour on Earth The moon's speed is not exactly the same but close enough It doesn't need a steering wheel to keep going round It just keeps riding through the dark blue void of space The atmosphere keeps us safe from the cosmic radiation We are covered in a thin sheet of gas and light particles It blocks most of the harmful rays from the sun Without it we might feel a bit cold on our bare skin The moon is not a perfect sphere but a bit flat on the side It looks like a distorted reflection of our own face When the Earth was young it was hot and we were not yet born The moon must have formed from the same stuff as our solar system It came from the same dust and gas that made the sun Scientists think the moon is a captured Earth-sized asteroid Or maybe it fell down from the sky when our solar system was born Either way it orbits us and we go around it without stopping We can see the phases of the moon from one day to the next The first is the new moon just as the day ends The last is the full moon just as the day begins In between we see the crescent and the gibbous shapes The dark part of the moon is called the dark side The lit part is called the lumina that shines on us When the earth is between us and the moon it brings the shadow The shadow is called the lunar eclipse when the moon disappears The shadow is called the earth's umbra and penumbra zones In the straight shadow it is totally dark like a void In the partial shadow it is half lit and half dark We can photograph the moon from the top of the Himalayas The very next day we can photograph it from the coast of Florida But the view in the high altitude looks a bit more green The night air is clean and the stars are not blocked by buildings We can walk up the mountain and see the full moon in the sky Or we can stand in the water and watch the moon in the glass It has a radius of about 1,737 kilometers which is 2,159 miles It is about 27% of the Earth's radius and 4,200 miles away from us The size of the moon is huge compared to the size of our planet It is bigger than Pluto and Titan which is the moon of Saturn If you were on the moon you would know how heavy the Earth feels It would be about 29 times as heavy as on another world The gravity gives a gentle push to everything on the surface We leap higher than a normal person trying to jump high The air pressure there is very low and acts like a protective shield We breathe easily because the oxygen level is perfect But the temperature is just right for the average person to be cold We can't live there for a long time because of the cold wind The cold wind is called the lunar wind and it can freeze our skin But the land is very dry and there is no rain to wash the dust The dust stays there for a very long time in the craters and the basins We can see the moonlight reflecting off the desert sand The sand is white and reflects light back to our eyes We can also see the moonlight reflecting off the rock formations The craters are deep and the walls are steep like a wall They were made by huge asteroids smashing into the moon The biggest crater is called Kepler's crater and it is 200 miles wide There is also a huge impact crater that was made by a comet The moon has a young surface with lots of fresh craters Most of the moon is covered by space dust and rocks We can't see the moon for a long time because of the dust We can see it very well when the sun is bright and the sky is clear The moon rises about 50 minutes earlier each day So the time between moonrise and sunset gets shorter by a day But the moon moves so slowly that it doesn't move up the sky It stays in the same spot in the sky for the whole night The moon is the only body in the solar system with life on it It is perfect because it has a lot of water and organic compounds It is the only place where we might find human life in the future We should protect the moon and not disturb it in the dark We should leave it alone so it can keep its secrets The moon is a witness to the history of the solar system It remembers everything that happened in the beginning It watches over us and we watch over it with our eyes We can see the moon without needing a telescope or a camera We can see it with our naked eyes in the dark The moon is a friend that watches us from the dark side It brings us light and we bring it back in return We can look up at the moon and see something that is real It is real and everything we are made of The moon is an old friend that has known us for a long time It has seen us grow and we have seen it grow with us We are part of the universe and the moon is part of us It is a mirror that shows us our past and our future We can see the moon and we can see ourselves in the moon The moon is a symbol of our home and our home is the moon We are all connected by the moon and the earth We are all connected by the same language of the sky The moon is a friend that never changes and we can trust it We can count the days of the moon and the days of the earth We can measure the time and the time is something we share The moon is a reminder that we are small and the universe is big We are small and the universe is big and we must respect the big The moon is a friend that waits for us and we must be ready We must be ready to appreciate the moon and its light The moon is a friend that watches us and we must be good to it We must be good to the moon and it will love us back The moon is a friend that comes from the stars and we must be ready We must be ready to see the stars and the moon together The moon is a friend that is always there and we must be ready We must be ready to know where the moon is and what it is The moon is a friend that makes us think about what we are We are small animals and the moon is a big creature But we are also part of the big creature and we must be kind We must be kind to the moon and the moon will be kind to us The moon is a friend that is always watching and we must be good We must be good to the moon and it will watch us too The moon is a friend that brings us light and we must be ready We must be ready to see the light and the moon will show us The moon is a friend that is always there and we must be ready We must be ready to know where the moon is and what it is The moon is a friend that makes us think about what we are We are small animals and the moon is a big creature But we are also part of the big creature and we must be kind We must be kind to the moon and the moon will be kind to us The moon is a friend that brings us light and we must be ready We must be ready to see the light and the moon will show us The moon is a friend that is always there and we must be ready We must be ready to know where the moon is and what it is The moon is a friend that makes us think about what we are We are small animals and the moon is a big creature But we are also part of the big creature and we must be kind We must be kind to the moon and the moon will be kind to us