THE moon is our closest celestial neighbour. It is just 385,000 kilometres away, which means it is easy to see surface features using binoculars, and so get a glimpse into its history – and our own.
Unlike Earth, the moon has almost no atmosphere. This means there is nothing to slow down or burn up incoming rocks and dust, so everything hits the surface. You would never see a shooting star from the surface of the moon.
And because the moon isn’t geologically active, the signs of those impacts aren’t erased as they are on Earth. The moon is entirely covered in craters, some billions of years old, and studying them can tell us about the history of the solar system.
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Abigail Beall 