What is the average distance between the Moon and Earth?
The Moon orbits at an average distance of approximately 384,400 kilometers. This span is roughly 30 times the width of Earth itself.
Common questions about Moon
Short answers, pulled from the story.
How did the Moon form according to current scientific theories?
The prevailing theory states that the Moon formed from a catastrophic collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized body named Theia approximately 4.51 billion years ago. Computer simulations suggest that most of the Moon derived from the impactor rather than the proto-Earth.
When was the first human landing on the Moon?
Humans first arrived on the surface of the Moon on the 20th of July 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission. By 1972, six Apollo missions had landed twelve humans on the Moon and stayed up to three days.
Where is the lowest point on the surface of the Moon?
The lowest point on the surface of the Moon is the floor of the South Pole-Aitken basin, which reaches 9 kilometers below the mean radius. This giant far-side basin is some 2,500 kilometers in diameter and is the largest crater on the Moon.
How much water ice has been detected on the Moon?
The LCROSS spacecraft detected at least 100 kilograms of water in a plume of ejected material from a permanently shadowed polar crater in 2009. Analysis of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper revealed definitive evidence for water-ice on the lunar surface in August 2018.
How fast is the Moon moving away from Earth?
Measurements from laser reflectors left during the Apollo missions have found that the Moon's distance increases by 3.8 centimeters per year. This rate is roughly the same as the growth rate of human fingernails.