The Moon

The Moon — page 3
CHAPTER 1 ONE OF A KIND The moon is Earth's only natural satellite It is also the brightest object in the sky after the sun But the moon doesn't produce its own light Instead it reflects the sun's light Though the moon appears white its surface is gray The moon rotates around its axis just as Earth does One rotation of the moon takes about 27 days In that time the moon also completes one orbit around Earth As the moon travels its same side always faces Earth This is known as being tidally locked Earth's gravitational pull drags the moon into Earth's orbit But the moon has gravitational pull too While orbiting Earth the moon pulls Earth's water slightly toward it This creates ocean tides High and low tides occur as Earth spins and faces the moon at different angles