Moon of Earth
Diameter: 3475 km
Distance: 384400 km (mean)
Period: 27.3217 days
Eccentricity: 0.055
Inclination: 5.16°
Magnitude: -12.7

The presence of the Moon causes the tides and moderates Earth's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate over billions of years. From Earth, we always see the same face of the Moon because the Moon rotates once on its own axis in the same time that it travels once around Earth. The light areas of the Moon are known as the highlands. The dark features, called maria (Latin for seas), are impact basins that were filled with lava between 4 and 2.5 billion years ago.