SpaceKids

Is the Moon Really Made of Cheese?

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Apollo 14 Moon Rock
This NASA moon rock was collected by astronauts on the Apollo 14 mission to the lunar surface in 1971. (Image credit: NASA/Sean Smith)

A lot of kids are led to believe this, at least for a time when they are young. And there was a time when even the smartest scientists didn’t know what the moon was made of.

But today we know that the Earth's moon is like a rocky planet, and in some ways not unlike Earth itself. We actually have samples of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts, and the moon rocks are about 4.5 billion years old, older than rocks found on Earth.

These rocks are thought to date from the formation of the moon — just after the Earth formed — and provide a good estimate of its age.

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.