Over the centuries, poets, romantics, and lovers have all found the Moon an object of wonder. By far the brightest object in the night sky, the Moon casts over the Earth a pale, mysterious light. But the MoonΓÇÖs appeal is not only emotional; next to the Earth, it is the object in the solar system most closely studied by scientists. The Moon has been scrutinized both by scientists working on Earth and, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by astronauts who landed on its surface.
Many of the features seen here are well known. The dark areas, which can be seen with the naked eye, are known as ΓÇ£maria,ΓÇ¥ Latin for ΓÇ£seas.ΓÇ¥ Early astronomers imagined the Moon was a world like our own, its maria seas like
