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WHAT TO SEE
Don't let this grey globe fool you – there are plenty of exciting regions to visit on the Moon.
Maria
The landscape is divided into two main areas. The dark patches are called maria, meaning ‘seas'. It was named at a time when people thought that liquid water flowed over these regions.
Since then, it was discovered that the maria are areas of solidified lava. They were formed over four thousand million years ago, when the Moon was volcanically active. The largest of these regions is called ‘Oceanus Procellarum'.
Terrae
The other main regions are called ‘terrae', or ‘land'. These lightly coloured highlands are the most ancient regions on the Moon. They are covered in countless craters - the scars from millions of years worth of impacts.
Crater Tycho
This eye-catching crater in the south can be even seen from the Earth. Its giant walls are 4.5km (miles) high and 85km (53 miles) apart. Tycho is surrounded by bright rays that stretch half way across the globe. These are the splashes of molten rock that splattered across the Moon when the crater was formed by a massive asteroid impact.
 Find out about the threat to Earth from asteroids
Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis is the site of the first ever lunar landing. See if you can spot the plaque left behind by the astronauts. It shouldn't be too tricky - there is no wind on the Moon, so you should still be able to follow the footprints.
LOCAL HISTORY
The Moon has had a place in many world mythologies. To the Romans, the Moon was the goddess Luna. The Greeks referred to the Moon goddess as Selene, and the Egyptians worshiped the Moon as Isis.
Moon madness
The phases of the Moon have often been associated with madness, giving rise to the English word 'lunatic'.
How the Moon was made
How the Moon formed is still unconfirmed. The latest thinking suggests it was created after a collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized planet early in the Earth's history.
Discover how the planets formed
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TRAVEL INFORMATION
Before you leave
Check out reports from previous visitors to the Moon. The first manned expedition was made by Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission of 1969. Since then there have been a further five manned missions.
Explore the past, present and future of lunar missions
When you arrive
Though the Moon is the closest body to the Earth, we can't walk on the surface unaided. There's no atmosphere, so it's impossible to breathe.
The lack of atmosphere also means there's no protection from harmful radiation in the solar wind. But it's not all bad news. One day we could use hydrogen stored in the Moon's surface as a source of fuel.
SPOTTING THE MOON FROM THE EARTH
The Moon is the easiest thing to spot in the night sky. Even with the naked eye, you can see quite a lot of detail on its surface. Through a telescope it is a stunning sight, with craters, rays and dark regions clearly visible.
The far side of the Moon
Only half the Moon is visible from the Earth. This is because the time the Moon takes to spin on its axis is exactly the same as the time it takes to orbit the Earth.
This is no coincidence. Because the Moon is not completely round and bulges slightly, unbalancing its gravitational force. This forced the Moon's rotation to slow down, until its bulge was aligned with the Earth.
The force exerted by the Moon on the Earth is having a similar effect on the Earth's rotation. Gradually the Earth is slowing down. One day, the length of time the Earth takes to spin round its axis will be the same as the Moon takes to orbit us. When that happens, we will only be able to see the Moon from one side of the Earth.
This has already happened on Pluto, where you can only see its moon, Charon, from one side of the dwarf planet.
Phases of the Moon
Over the course of a month, the Moon appears to grow ('wax') and shrink ('wane').
In fact, ever since prehistoric times, the phases of the Moon have been used a basis for calendars and time measurement. This is how we get the length of our month – the time that passes from one full Moon to the next.
The phases occur because half of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun. But this is not always the same half that is visible from the Earth.
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