what is the size of the moon relative to earth
How big is the moon?
Globe'southward moon is the brightest object in our night heaven. Just how large is the moon? The moon'due south mean radius is 1,079.six miles (1,737.5 kilometers) and the mean diameter is ii,159.ii miles (3,475 km). Compared to Earth, the moon is less than a third the width of our home planet, according to NASA. The moon'southward equatorial circumference is vi,783.v miles (ten,917 km).
At first, the moon may announced quite large, but that is only because it is our closest celestial torso — approximately 238,855 miles (384,400 km) away on boilerplate.
moon stats
– Radius: 1,079.6 miles (1,737.5 km)
– Diameter: 2,159.2 miles (3,475 km).
– Surface area: fourteen.6 million square miles (38 million foursquare km)
– Mass: 7.35 x 10^22 kg
– Density: three.34 grams per cubic centimeter (3.34 thousand/cm3)
The moon is a scrap more than one-quarter (27 percent) the size of Earth, a much larger ratio (ane:4) than any other planets and their moons. Earth'south moon is the fifth largest moon in the solar organisation.
"If World were the size of a nickel, the moon would exist about as big every bit a coffee bean," co-ordinate to a statement from NASA.
The moon's surface area is about 14.vi one thousand thousand square miles (38 million square km), which is less than the total surface area of the continent of Asia (17.two million foursquare miles or 44.5 meg square km).
Related: Does the moon rotate?
Moon mass, density and gravity
The moon's mass is 7.35 x 1022 kg, virtually 1.two% of Earth'due south mass. Put some other way, Globe weighs 81 times more than than the moon. The moon's density is 3.34 grams per cubic centimeter (three.34 g/cm3). That is about threescore% of Earth'south density.
The moon'southward gravitational force is but nearly 16.6 % of Earth'southward gravity which means a person would counterbalance six times less on the moon than they do on Earth. A 45-kilogram person would weigh 100 lbs. on World simply only 16.6 lbs. on the moon. Long jump events on the lunar surface would certainly exist interesting every bit a person who can leap upward ten feet on Earth would be able to jump almost 60 anxiety on the moon.
Similar most of the solar system worlds, the moon'due south gravity varies based on its surface features. In 2012, NASA'southward Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission mapped the moon's gravity in unprecedented item.
Did you know?
The moon is the 2nd densest moon in the solar system; Jupiter'southward moon Io is denser, with 3.53 g/cm3.
"What this map tells us is that more any other celestial body nosotros know of, the moon wears its gravity on its sleeve," GRAIL chief investigator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Constitute of Engineering said in a statement. "When we run across a notable change in the gravity field, we can sync upwardly this change with surface topography features such as craters, rilles or mountains."
While the moon is the closest and one of the longest studied astronomical objects, scientists continue to press the celestial body for details.
"The moon is the Rosetta Stone by which we understand the rest of the solar system," Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA'due south Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, said in a statement.
How does our moon compare to others in the solar organisation?
According to the science educational activity website The Nine Planets (they nonetheless love Pluto), our moon is the biggest in the solar organization relative to the size of its planet, it is the fifth-biggest overall. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar arrangement.
| Rank | Moon | Equatorial radius | Parent planet |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | Ganymede | 1,635 miles (2,631 km) | Jupiter |
| 2 | Titan | 1,600 miles (2,575 km) | 1,600 miles (2,575 km) Saturn |
| iii | Callisto | ane,497 miles (2,410.3 km) | Jupiter |
| iv | Io | one,131.7 miles (ane,821.vi km) | Jupiter |
| 5 | The moon | one,079.6 miles (i,737.5 km) | Globe |
| half dozen | Europa | 969.84 miles (1,560.8 km) | Jupiter |
| seven | Triton | 840.96 miles (1,353.4 km) | Neptune |
| 8 | Titania | 490.19 miles (788.9 km) | Uranus |
| 9 | Rhea | 474.91 miles (764.3 km) | Saturn |
| 10 | Oberon | 473.11 miles (761.4 km) | Uranus |
Supermoon
Have you ever gazed upwardly and the night sky and thought "why is the moon so big this evening?". The answer is in the moon's orbit. Considering the moon'southward orbit is not circular, it is sometimes closer than at other times. When the moon is closest to Earth — approximately 226,000 miles (363,300 km) –it is known as Perigee, according to an article past NASA. When a full moon coincides with perigee, we get a supermoon, which appears 14 percent larger and xxx percent brighter than usual.
Starting time applied past astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, "supermoon" originally referred to a new or total moon that occurs when the moon is inside 90 percent of its closest approach to World. The astronomical term for the phenomena is a perigee-syzygy moon. According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory "Syzygy is the alignment of iii celestial bodies, in this case, the Sun, Moon and Earth. But that doesn't quite gyre off the tongue as easily as supermoon".
The deviation isn't always obvious; co-ordinate to NASA, "A 30 percent departure in brightness can be easily masked past clouds or the competing glare of urban lights."
"The main reason why the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circumvolve is that in that location are a lot of tidal, or gravitational, forces that are pulling on the moon," Petro told Space.com, adding that the gravity of the Earth, sun and planets of our solar system all bear on the orbit of the moon. "You have all of these unlike gravitational forces pulling and pushing on the moon, which gives us opportunities to have these close passes."
A supermoon occurs about every 414 days. That's an boilerplate, however; the year 2016 boasted not 1 but three supermoons. The moon won't get every bit shut to Earth every bit information technology got during the November 2016 supermoon until November 25, 2034.
Why does the moon look large when rising or setting about the horizon?
It'southward all an illusion. A little-understood optical event can make the moon seem bigger when rising behind distant objects on the horizon. This fob of the brain — known either equally the moon illusion or the Ponzo illusion — has been observed since aboriginal times, simply still has no generally accepted explanation, according to NASA.
One theory holds that we're used to seeing clouds merely a few miles higher up the states, while we know that clouds on the horizon tin can exist tens of miles distant. If a cloud on the horizon is the same size as clouds normally are overhead despite its great distance, we know information technology must be huge. And considering the moon near the horizon is the same size as information technology normally is overhead, our brains automatically tack on a similar size increase.
Merely not everyone thinks clouds have worked their magic on our brains to such a great extent. One alternative hypothesis holds that the moon seems larger near the horizon because nosotros tin can compare its size to nearby trees and other objects on Globe — and it looms big in comparison. Overhead, amongst the vast surface area of outer infinite, the moon seems diminutive.
One way to examination whether it'due south simply an illusion is to hold your pollex up adjacent to the moon and compare the moon'due south size with your thumbnail. When the moon is college in the sky, look at it again; the moon will exist the aforementioned size compared to your thumbnail.
Additional resources
Looking for more fast moon facts, these educational infographics by ESA have got you covered. Curious to run across how much you would weigh on other worlds, this fun interactive action from the science museum Exploratorium volition tell you! If you would like to read more about the Ponzo illusion, The Illusion Index from the University of Glasgow has a large drove of illusions for you to explore.
Bibliography
- Lo Presto, Michael C. "How big is the Moon?." The Physics Teacher 38.3 (2000): 179-180.
- Rudrauf, David, Daniel Bennequin, and Kenneth Williford. "The moon illusion explained past the projective consciousness model." Journal of Theoretical Biology 507 (2020): 110455.
- Schmidt, Johann Friedrich Julius. "Size and Mass of the Moon." The Moon. Springer, Cham, 2020. seven-seven
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Source: https://www.space.com/18135-how-big-is-the-moon.html#:~:text=The%20moon%20is%20a%20bit,moon%20in%20the%20solar%20system.
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