User:Iridia/Sandbox

The dark shadowed disk of the Moon moves across the face of the quarter-phase Earth, covering only a small part of the cloud-swirled semicircle. — Comparative sizes of the Earth and the Moon, as imaged at separation of 50 million km^[1]

The Moon is a a quarter the diameter of the Earth and 1/81 its mass,^[2] making it the largest moon in the solar system relative to the size of its planet (although Charon is larger relative to the dwarf planet Pluto).^[3]

However, the Earth and Moon are still considered a planet–satellite system, rather than a double-planet system, as their barycentre, the common centre of mass, is located 1,700 km (about a quarter of the Earth's radius) beneath the surface of the Earth.^[4]

The Moon's surface area is less than one-tenth that of the Earth; about a quarter of the Earth's land area.

^ Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2008 September 3
^ Spudis, P.D. (2004). "Moon". World Book Online Reference Center, NASA. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
^ "Space Topics: Pluto and Charon". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
^ "Planet Definition Questions & Answers Sheet". International Astronomical Union. 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2010.

[1] Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2008 September 3

[worldbook-2] Spudis, P.D. (2004). "Moon". World Book Online Reference Center, NASA. Retrieved 12 April 2007.

[3] "Space Topics: Pluto and Charon". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 6 April 2010.

[4] "Planet Definition Questions & Answers Sheet". International Astronomical Union. 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2010.

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