Our nearest celestial neighbor revolves around Earth every 27 days at a distance of roughly 240,000 miles. Formed billions of years ago alongside our planet, the Moon has played a major role in world religion and culture, and it is the only celestial body humanity has visited—so far. Discover the fascinating facts about the Moon in our collection of the internet's best resources.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
Using NASA's next-generation megarocket, the Space Launch System, Artemis I will take an uncrewed spacecraft on a 42-day journey around the moon. Subsequent missions plan to land the first woman on the lunar surface.
The Apollo Program aspires to return humans to the moon—and to build humanity's first permanent habitat on its surface. The project involves complex construction plans, including creating roads from moon dust, baking bricks to build habitats, and more.
Is there water on the moon? In 2020, NASA's SOFIA mission confirmed the existence of water on the sunlit area of the lunar surface. Early astronomers mistook the dark spots on the Moon for oceans, but they are actually plains of dark, lava-produced...
Twelve Central Illinois residents are asked to share their thoughts on where they were when the first people landed on the Moon. This almost one-hour program is a collaboration of Eastern Illinois University's Booth Library, the EIU Department of History, and WEIU, and it premiered at EIU's Booth Library, January 24, 2019.
NASA's Artemis mission plans to see humans return to the moon by 2025, with long-term plans to build the first lunar base on its surface. To begin, astronauts will dwell for days at a time in SpaceX's Starship, which is capable of landing and taking off again from the moon. Over time, NASA plans to harvest minerals from the lunar surface to construct an oxygen pipeline as well as the rest of the base. Watch this video to see a sophisticated, detailed description of NASA's plans for the base.
On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace landed its Blue Ghost craft on the Moon. The private company then operated the craft for two weeks, conducting surface operations and becoming the first private space company to have a fully successful mission on the Moon. This short video captures pristine, dramatic footage of the mission's successful touchdown.
After decades of dormancy, NASA and SpaceX hope the Artemis program will provide opportunities for lunar resource extraction. Countries like India, China, and the UAE have also shown interest in developing future lunar economies.
Driven by tidal forces, the effect is minimal and slow, ensuring stable tidal patterns and lunar cycles. Earth's rotation slows down as the Moon gains orbital momentum, slowly lengthening the day over time.
The strategy, which runs until 2050, focuses on advancing space science, fostering technological innovation, and exploring habitable planets and extraterrestrial life, beginning with landing astronauts on the moon before 2030.
Photos taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile in March 2025 captured a blood moon and the Milky Way galaxy within the same field of view. The moon appears red from the bluer parts of its reflected sunlight being scattered by Earth's atmosphere.
