The Moon

The Moon
The Moon is a 4.5-billion-year-old ball of rock in space and is Earth’s only natural satellite. A satellite is something which revolves around a planet. This can be a natural satellite, such as the Moon, or a man-made satellite placed into orbit for research or communications.

How the Moon Formed
The most likely theory about how the Moon was formed is called the Giant Impact Hypothesis. It is thought that, 4.5 billion years ago, a planet the size of Mars collided with the Earth. This impact caused huge amounts of liquid rock to be thrown into space and this debris gathered together to form the Moon. The newly formed Moon settled into an orbit just 22,500km (14,000 miles) away from the Earth, which was the closest it could have been without Earth’s gravity pulling it back again.