The moon is our only natural satellite and has been orbiting Earth for about 4.5 billion years. It helps illuminate the night ...

The moon had a fluctuating orbit around the Earth, but recent changes in distance could be caused by the tidal force shifting the planet’s mass.

The shape of the moon deviates from a simple sphere in ways that scientists have struggled to explain. A new study shows that most of the moon's overall shape can be explained by taking into account ...

The leading theory for lunar origin is the giant impact 9,10, which explains the Moon’s large relative size and small iron core. Here we refer to the giant-impact theory in which the Earth–Moon ...

Heat radiating from the young Earth could help solve the more than 50-year-old mystery of why the far side of the moon, which faces away from Earth, lacks the dark, vast expanses of volcanic rock that ...

One Moon “day” is approximately 29 1/2 Earth days. This rotation coincides with its orbit around the Earth so that we only see about 59% of the surface of the Moon from Earth. When the Moon first ...

Earth's powerful gravity tugged the moon into its oddball shape long ago, shortly after both bodies formed, a new study suggests. Tidal forces exerted during the early days of the solar system can ...

An almost-full, half-pie, waxing moon hanging lopsided in the night sky has long been a symbol of things to come. Now scientists have a new symbolism for the lunar phase we call first quarter: a ...

A study of a New Zealand volcano suggests that a volcanic system's response to tidal forces could provide a tool for predicting a certain type of eruption. Just before a surprise eruption of New ...