🌙 Moon
The Moon
Earth’s only natural moon, and the only other world people have walked on.
- Size
- 3,500 km across, 27% as wide as Earth
- Goes round Earth
- every 27.3 Earth days
📍 Where is it now?
More than half lit, shrinking, 78% lit. Seen against the stars of Gemini, 366,000 km from Earth. Its light takes 1.2 seconds to reach us.
Did you know?
- Twelve astronauts walked on it between 1969 and 1972.
- It always shows us the same side.
Photographed or visited by
Apollo 8
The first people to leave Earth behind and go somewhere else.
Apollo 11
Two people walked on another world, and came back.
Apollo 17
The last time anyone stood on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-1
India’s first mission to the Moon, and it found water.
Chandrayaan-3
The first landing near the Moon’s south pole.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Has been mapping the Moon, metre by metre, since 2009.
Artemis I
An empty crew ship, sent round the Moon to prove it works.
Compare the Moon with EarthSide by side, to scale, in the app
More NASA photos of the MoonStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
Explore more
All of solar system
Mercury
The smallest planet, and the closest to the Sun.
Venus
The hottest planet, hidden under thick clouds.
Earth
Our home, the only world known to have life.
Mars
The red planet, with the tallest volcano in the solar system.
Jupiter
The biggest planet, with a storm larger than Earth.
Saturn
The ringed giant, light enough to float in water.