Key facts
- Scale fact
- 3,470 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Silicate rock
Moon
3,470 kmdiameter
Details
The Moon is Earth's natural satellite and the only other world humans have walked on. It is still drifting away from Earth by about 3.8 centimeters each year, a slow tidal migration that has been reshaping the Earth-Moon system for billions of years.
Earth rotates faster than the Moon orbits, so tidal friction transfers angular momentum from Earth's spin to the Moon's orbit. Earth's rotation gradually slows while the Moon recedes by about 3.8 centimeters per year. The familiar monthly cycle is therefore one moment in a system that has been changing for billions of years.
Links
- Universe journey
- Earth & Moon
- Wikipedia
- Moon on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Moon on the scale
Sources
References for Moon
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Moon — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Gregory H. Revera, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Continue with nearby objects or open the full scale.
About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.