Our solitary and prominent Moon orbits Earth at a mean distance of only 382,000 kilometers (236,840 miles). The nearest planet, Venus, is never closer than 40 million kilometers (25 million miles). The Moon's mass is just under one-eightieth that of Earth, its volume just over one-fiftieth; the difference mainly stems from the Moon lacking a large metallic iron core and therefore having a much lower overall density than Earth. Its low mass is responsible for the low surface gravity (one-sixth that at Earth's surface), popularly recognized in the jumping, bouncing gait of Apollo astronauts. The mass is much too low for the Moon to hold any significant atmosphere—it is essentially in a vacuum—or for its surface to have liquid water.

The surface area of the Moon is only about four times that of the land area of the United States. The Moon is not as large as any planet other...