Glowing like a silent guardian in the night sky, the moon is the fifth-largest satellite in the solar system and orbits Earth at an average distance of approximately 384,399 kilometres. With a diameter of about 3,474 kilometres—roughly one-quarter that of Earth—it exerts only one-sixth of our planet"s gravity. This is why astronauts famously bounce when they walk on its surface. The moon"s surface is mostly covered with rock and fine lunar dust, created by billions of years of impacts from meteoroids and micrometeorites. This powdery material, called regolith, gives the moon its grey, dusty appearance.
Photo of the moons surface through a telescope
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda
-
Sassnitz lighthouse, Germany
-
Lanyon Quoit, a Neolithic dolmen in Cornwall, England
-
Short-eared owl
-
Autumn colours below Mount Sneffels near Ridgway, Colorado, United States
-
Haghartsin Monastery, Armenia
-
Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia
-
Dolphin pod near Réunion island
-
Mylopotamos, Greece
-
Indigo bunting
-
Point Reyes National Seashore
-
Vatican City, Rome, Italy
-
Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica
-
Staghorn coral in shallow ocean
-
Königstein Fortress, Saxon Switzerland, Germany
-
Spotted owlet, Bangkok, Thailand
-
Greater flamingos at Pont de Gau Ornithological Park, Camargue, France
-
Burchells zebras
-
Ynys Llanddwyn, Wales, United Kingdom
-
Aerial view of Venice, Italy
-
Icebergs, Antarctica
-
Baia del Silenzio in Sestri Levante, Italy
-
Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, California, USA
-
Ring-tailed lemur
-
Phra Nakhon Khiri, Thailand
-
Hozugawa River in Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan
-
Green sea turtle
-
Red deer stag in De Hoge Veluwe National Park, Netherlands
-
Natural arch carved in an iceberg, Antarctica
-
Coyote Gulch, Glen Canyon Recreation Area, Utah
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

