The Moon
Earth's natural satellite
397,199 km from Earth
Born from a giant impact 4.5 billion years ago. The dark "seas" are ancient lava plains; bright rays splash out from young craters like Tycho.
- radius 1,737 km · 384,400 km from Earth
- always shows us the same face; 12 people have walked on it
Numbers that change with time are from 8 November 2026.
open the Moon in the atlas ›- kind
- place in the Solar System · moon or small world
- size
- 3,470 km across
- orbits
- Earth
- orbiting it
- Tranquility Base · Apollo 12 landing site · Apollo 14 landing site · Apollo 15 landing site · Hadley Rille · Apollo 16 landing site · Apollo 17 landing site · Tycho · Copernicus