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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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The {{w|Moon}} is a celestial body orbiting Earth, first formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago - about 50 million years after the initial formation of the solar system. As of the date of this comic, the Moon is still orbiting the Earth{{Citation needed}} at a distance of approximately 384,400 kilometers, or about 238,900 miles.
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{{incomplete|Created by a STRANGE ORB FLOATING IN THE SKY. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
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This comic points out how weird it is to have such an enormous celestial body near to us. The Moon has a radius more than one quarter of Earth's, and is around one eightieth of Earth's mass, and is so close that major surface features are visible, even with the naked eye, and much more clearly visible with even a simple telescope. Celestial distances tend to be so large that only truly immense objects can be seen without magnification, and even those tend to appear only as points of light to the naked eye. The second nearest body of notable size, Venus, is approximately 46.576 million kilometers away at its closest. The fact that there's "another world" that's close enough that humanity has always been aware of it, but distant enough that it couldn't be reached until a space program was developed, is a striking feature of Earth that we take for granted, only because it's always been that way.  
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The {{w|Moon}} is a celestial body orbiting Earth, first formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago - about 50 million years after the initial formation of the solar system. As of today (August 1st, 2023), the Moon is still orbiting the Earth{{Citation needed}} at a distance of approximately 384,400 kilometers, or about 238,900 miles.
  
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While it's not uncommon for planets to have orbiting moons, no other planet in the solar system has a moon that's so large, in relation to the planet. Of the other rocky planets, only Mars has moons, and the largest of those is only 14 miles across.
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This comic points out how weird it is to have such an enormous celestial body near to us. The Moon has a radius more than one quarter of Earth's, and is around one eightieth of Earth's mass, and is close enough that we can see the craters and other stuff on the surface with our naked eye, though a telescope would help. The second nearest body of comparable size, Venus, is approximately 46.576 million kilometers away at its closest.  
  
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Pluto and Charon are closer in size, than even the Earth/Moon system, but this meant that they had actually become seriously considered as a {{w|Double planet|double(/binary) planet pair}}, had not Pluto been redesignated as a "dwarf planet". There is the possibility a term such as "double dwarf planet" could be adopted, at some point, as "double minor planet" is sometimes already used for binary asteroid systems. The lesser bodies of the Pluto-Charon system may then even be considered as circumbinary moons.
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There are other planets with moons, but Earth's moon is very big compared to Earth - Mars's moons are way smaller and the biggest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is just twice as massive with 1.5 the radius, despite orbiting Jupiter, which is 317x more massive than Earth with 11x bigger radius.
  
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Other than this, Earth is the only accepted planet we're currently aware of that has a satellite that's so visible from its surface.  
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In human history, we have landed twelve people on the moon in the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. Despite advancements in technology since then, we have yet to land another person on the Moon, though plans are being made.
  
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The title text sarcastically claims that, other than being "pretty", the Moon doesn't impact us, then subverts it by mentioning substantial impacts it has on Earth. Having such a large satellite so close has impacts that we take for granted only because we're used to them, but if they hadn't always existed, they'd seem unbelievable. One is that, for half the lunar cycle, the moon reflects enough light to produce visibility at night. The other impact is tides, since the gravitational pull of the Moon is large enough to alter the surfaces of oceans, causing shorelines to shift on a daily cycle. The text mentions these dismissively, in a deliberate contrast with their huge significance. Moonlight alters the illumination cycle of the planet to a significant degree, which changes how both humans and other animals operate at night, even before the advent of artificial lighting. Tides had major impacts on the development of life, continue to affect ecosystems, and play an essential role in our ability to interact with the oceans. If someone from a planet without such a large moon were to observe these impacts, they'd likely be shocked and amazed by them, but we barely notice them.
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The title text refers to two facts about how the Moon majorly impacts life on Earth, which also would seem strange if they weren't real. Firstly the lunar cycle, in which the Moon's orbit is roughly half the time on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun and (being visibly at least half-illuminated, whilst there, except briefly during rare eclipses) provides a low but significant amount of reflected illumination that nature (as well as humanity) has found a nocturnal use for. Secondly, the tides, a very nearly twice-daily cycle where the Moon's gravity (modified by the Sun's) subtly pulls upon the Earth and drags the waters of the seas and oceans around, periodically increases the sea levels in most places. However, it reflects a naïve view that these effects are minor and incidental, underestimating the profound ways in which they have shaped the history of the Earth. This reflects general attitudes - we like the Moon 'cause it is close to us, but tend to be relatively unaware of it's huge significance.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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:[Ponytail is pointing and looking up to the left, while Cueball behind her looks the same way.]
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{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
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:[Ponytail points to something in the sky, presumably the moon. Cueball stands nearby.]
 
:Ponytail: That thing hanging in the sky is a second nearby world. It's close enough that you can see its surface as it passes overhead.
 
:Ponytail: That thing hanging in the sky is a second nearby world. It's close enough that you can see its surface as it passes overhead.
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:Cueball: Wow. Isn't that ... weird?
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:Cueball: Wow. Isn't that... weird?
 
:Ponytail: I dunno, it's just always been there.
 
:Ponytail: I dunno, it's just always been there.
  
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==Trivia==
 
==Trivia==
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*Earth's moon can be considered weird for additional reasons.  
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Earth's moon is weird for an additional two reasons. First, it is by far the largest and most massive moon relative to the planet it orbits. Secondly, our moon is the only moon in the solar system to not have a proper name, not even a jumble of letters and numbers. In English it is simply given the proper name of "the Moon" (capitalized), being the ancient archetype for all other moons discovered since the time of Galileo, although it can also be described by other titles such as "Luna" (directly taken from from Latin mythology/astronomy).
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**It is by far the largest and most massive moon relative to the planet it orbits.  
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**Our moon is the only moon in the solar system to not have a proper name, not even a jumble of letters and numbers. In English it is simply given the proper name of "the Moon" (capitalized), being the ancient archetype for all other moons discovered since the time of Galileo, although it can also be described by other titles such as "Luna" (directly taken from from Latin mythology/astronomy).
 
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**It is almost exactly the same apparent size as the Sun in the sky which at various times enables both total solar eclipses (for which it needs to be close/large) and annular ones (for which it must not be ''too'' close/large). Much earlier in history it was too close to do both and much later it will gradually drift too far away to do so – making it additionally a temporal coincidence that humanity gets to witness it as we are so used to seeing it.
 
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**There are even a couple of hypotheses that think that to get protein shaped right for life, the tides were needed, and that to evolve for living on land the tides are needed.
 
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
  

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