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The Moon


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  • The Moon is much smaller than the Earth.
  • The Moon’s small size gives it a weak gravity, so that today:
    • It lacks an atmosphere.
    • It has cooled much more since the time of its formation than the Earth has.
  • Because its interior is so relatively cool, the Moon is not active and lacks crustal motions and active volcanoes.
  • The Moon’s surface is covered with craters blasted into its surface by asteroid impacts.
  • The Moon was probably formed from debris blasted out of the Earth by the impact of a planet-size object shortly after the Earth’s formation.
  • The Moon periodically aligns with the Sun and Earth to create eclipses.
  • The Moon’s gravity creates tides in the Earth’s oceans.








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