The moon is tilted with respect to the Earth's orbital plane. (Image credit: NASA) The moon is Earth's nearest neighbor, but its origins date back to a violent birth billions of years ago.

The orbital plane of the moon around Earth is tilted by 5.15 degrees with respect to the ecliptic. This causes the moon to rise and fall by about a fist's diameter as it orbits Earth, ...

One might think that this should occur every month at Full Moon, but the Moon’s orbital plane is not exactly in line with the Earth’s plane around the Sun, so alignments occur less frequently.

What is more, we know the Earth itself is tilted relative to the orbital plane – it’s why we have seasons. In fact, the intriguing thing is that the Moon’s orbit aligns much more closely ...

The moon also revolves around the Earth about once a month, and that orbit is a little bit tilted. To be more precise, the moon’s orbital plane around the Earth is at an approximate five-degree ...

The polar view is almost completely dominated by the latitudinal libration, caused by the inclination of the Moon’s orbital plane. This variation is about 6.5 degrees ...

The Moon's current orbit is at odds with theories predicting that its early orbit was in Earth's equatorial plane. Simulations now suggest that its orbit was tilted by gravitational interactions ...