The Moon is our nearest neighbour in Space.

If you look at the Moon on a full moon night, you can see light and dark areas on it.

Let’s find out what these light and dark areas are?

The Moon is a lifeless place.

It has no air and water.

The surface of the Moon is rough and uneven with large, round hollows or pits called craters.

Some of these craters are hundreds of kilometres wide.

Many of them have been made by large rocks that fell on the surface of the Moon.

The Moon also has tall mountains and flat plains.

When we see the Moon from Earth, these mountain areas look brighter than the areas with planes.

The Moon revolves around Earth. It also rotates, but quite slowly.

It is the only natural satellite of Earth.

It takes the Moon about one month to complete one revolution of Earth. Since the Moon revolves and rotates at the same speed, the same side of the Moon always faces Earth.

The Moon is about one-fourth the size of Earth.

Like Earth, the Moon also pulls all objects towards itself. This happens due to the gravity on the Moon.

The gravity on the Moon is only about one-sixth that on Earth.

If your weight measures 30 kilograms on Earth then you will weigh only 5 kilograms on the Moon.

Because of this low level of gravity, there is no atmosphere on the Moon.

Thus, there is no air on the Moon and hence we cannot hear anything there, as sound needs a medium like air to travel.

Due to the absence of atmosphere on the Moon, the side of the Moon that faces the Sun becomes boiling hot and the side that does not face the Sun becomes freezing cold.