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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It has no formal English name other than "the Moon", although in English it is occasionally called Luna (Latin for moon), or Selene (Greek for moon), to distinguish it from the generic term "moon" (natural satellites of other planets are also called moons). Its symbol is a crescent. The terms lunar, selene/seleno-, and -cynthion (from the Lunar deities Selene and Cynthia) refer to the Moon (aposelene, selenocentric, pericynthion, etc.).
The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi). The Moon's diameter is 3,476 kilometres (2,160 mi). Reflected sunlight from the Moon's surface reaches Earth in 1.3 seconds (at the speed of light). The Moon is the Solar System's fifth largest moon and is the second most massive moon.
The first man-made object to land on the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959; the first photographs of the otherwise occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3 in the same year, and the first people to land on the Moon came aboard Apollo 11 in 1969. It is the only celestial body other than the Earth upon which humans have set foot.
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