faces the Earth. Only with the advent of lunar missions were scientists able to see the MoonΓÇÖs other face. On Earth, the MoonΓÇÖs gravitational field affects ocean tides.
The MoonΓÇÖs formation remains a mystery. Scientists once thought it may have been spun off from the Earth billions of years ago, when our planet was spinning rapidly. But lunar rocks collected by astronauts undermined this theory: they were different from those that constitute the EarthΓÇÖs surface. According to another theory, the Moon was formed by the accretion of asteroid-like objects, in much the same way as the rocky planets, and was then captured by EarthΓÇÖs gravity. But again, lunar rocks proved to be
