The Moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) from Earth. The diameter of Earth is 7,926 (12,756 kilometers) and that of the Moon is 2,159 miles (3,476 kilometers). To put that in more understandable terms, if Earth was roughly the size of a basketball, about 10 inches (25 centimeters), the Moon would be about the size of a tennis ball (about 2.7 inches or 6.7 centimeters) and the two would be about 25 feet (about 7.6 meters) away from each other.
More Fly Me To The Moon Facts:
- The Moon is approximately 4.6 billion years old, roughly the same age as Earth.
- The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in our solar system, and circles Earth at about 2,300 miles per hour (3,700 kilometers per hour).
- The Moon makes a full rotation on its axis in about 27 days. One side of the Moon faces the sun for about two weeks and heats up to 243 degrees Fahrenheit (117 degrees Celsius) while the dark side has cooler temperatures of about -272 degrees Fahrenheit (-169 degrees Celsius).
- No nation claims ownership of the Moon. The United States and Russia signed a treaty in 1967 called the Outer Space Treaty, which states that all of outer space belongs to all of mankind.