The Moon, Every person should know or have seen what the moon is, Scientifically the moon is the Earths only natural satellite. On the subject of the moon the reason when astronauts jump higher on the moon than the earth is because of its gravity the gravity of the moon only has about 1/6th of the earths which also makes objects weigh less. The Moon's surface is covered with features such as impact craters, mountains, valleys, and flat plains, these are called maria. maria is latin for the word sea and were formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. The Moon is one-quarter the size of Earth It orbits Earth at an average distance of about 384,400 kilometers or 238,900 miles.