## Metadata - Author: [[Rebecca Boyle]] - Full Title: Our Moon - Category: #books ## Highlights - One reason so few places on Earth resemble the Moon is because of all the water on this planet. Earth’s water softens and demolishes rock. Combined with wind, water is a destroyer of worlds. Entire mountain ranges rise and fall through the work of water. It also erases craters. Though the timing and duration of the beating are still up for debate, we know Earth was bombarded by asteroids long ago, and yet there are no battle scars to show for it. But the Moon, free of water and wind, preserves a record of its primordial pummeling. ([Location 298](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C2PF3RTV&location=298)) - The Moon is not just a small satellite orbiting a larger world; in fact, the Moon doesn’t technically rotate around Earth’s center of gravity. Rather, both Earth and the Moon orbit around their shared barycenter. This is a bland term for a lovely concept: The barycenter represents the nexus of the pair’s relationship. Earth and the Moon orbit their shared center of gravity. The barycenter is found not at Earth’s core, but at an average of three thousand miles from its center. ([Location 889](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C2PF3RTV&location=889))