The astronauts aboard the Artemis II mission have done something no human being has ever done before — they have travelled further into space than any of us who came before them. On Monday, they glimpsed parts of the Moon that no human eye has ever seen. It’s the kind of moment that makes you stop and think about what we actually know about that pale, glowing disc that has watched over humanity since the very beginning.
So let’s take a closer look at our nearest neighbour.
Earth’s Loyal Companion
The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite, and while it isn’t the largest moon in the solar system — that title belongs to Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons — it holds a distinction of its own: it is the biggest moon relative to the planet it orbits. With a diameter of 2,159 miles, it measures just over one-fourth the size of Earth. And if you’ve ever felt the Moon seemed a little distant lately, you’re not imagining things. It’s slowly drifting away from us, creeping about an inch further from Earth every single year.
One more surprise: that perfectly round Moon you see on a clear night? It’s actually slightly egg-shaped, with the larger end tilted toward us.
Why the Moon Changes Shape (It Doesn’t, Really)
As the Moon orbits Earth, different portions fall in sunlight or shadow at any given time. From where we stand, this creates the familiar cycle of phases — from a thin crescent to a glowing full moon. During a full moon, the hemisphere facing us is completely lit by the Sun. It’s an illusion of change, not a physical transformation.
Those dark patches you can see from your backyard? They’re called maria — Latin for “seas” — though there’s no water in sight. They are ancient volcanic plains, formed billions of years ago by enormous lava flows. Early astronomers mistook them for actual bodies of water, and the name stuck.
A World of Extremes
Without an atmosphere to regulate temperature, the Moon is a place of violent contrasts. In direct sunlight, the surface bakes at around 260°F. In darkness, it plummets to -280°F. The entire surface is blanketed in a layer of fine, charcoal-grey dust — the product of billions of years of meteorite impacts slowly grinding the rock down into powder.
That dust turned out to hold a surprise. When Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the Moon, they discovered it had a smell. Not on the surface — the Moon has no air for scent to travel through — but once back in an environment with atmosphere, the dust clinging to their suits and equipment revealed itself. They described it as metallic, like burnt gunpowder, or the sharp scent in the air just after a firecracker goes off.
Nobody had predicted that.
The Moon in the Human Imagination
Long before anyone set foot on the lunar surface, humanity was telling stories about it. The legend of the Man in the Moon dates back to at least the 12th century. Other cultures saw different things entirely — many East Asian and indigenous American traditions speak of a Moon Rabbit, a mythical figure based on dark markings on the Moon that resemble a rabbit working at a mortar and pestle. The same Moon, seen through different eyes, told entirely different stories.
It speaks to how deeply the Moon is woven into human culture, across every civilisation and every era.
The Twelve Who Walked There
To date, the Moon is the only world beyond Earth that humans have ever visited. Between 1969 and 1972, twelve people — all American men, all part of NASA’s Apollo program — walked on its surface. Neil Armstrong was the first, stepping onto the Moon on July 20, 1969. Eugene Cernan was the last, departing on December 14, 1972. No human has been back since.
But we left plenty behind. More than 413,000 pounds of human-made material now rests on the Moon: spacecraft, rovers, scientific equipment, six American flags, two golf balls (courtesy of astronaut Alan Shepard, who took a few swings in the low gravity), a family photograph, memorials to fallen astronauts, and the ashes of geologist Gene Shoemaker, who spent his life studying craters and never made it to the Moon while alive.
What Comes Next
The Artemis II crew flying today are the advance party for something larger. NASA plans to land humans on the lunar south pole as part of the Artemis IV mission in 2028. Both the United States and China, along with their respective international partners, are working toward establishing permanent lunar bases in the 2030s.
The Apollo missions were defined by exploration — go, see, come back. The Artemis program has a different ambition: to stay.
After more than fifty years away, humanity is heading back to the Moon. And this time, we’re planning to make ourselves at home.