How Big is the Moon? MM#1

less than 1m read

·Nov 2, 2024

How big is the moon? In the night sky, the moon seems rather small, but in reality, it really isn't. Central Europe would easily fit under it. The surface area of the moon is huge. To give you some perspective, it's as big as the whole European continent, China, the USA, Brazil, and South Africa together.

Weight-wise, the moon is only about 1/81th of the mass of Earth, but how big is it in relation to Earth? Quite big actually, our moon is the biggest in the solar system in relation to its planet, and it's the fifth largest moon in the solar system. Quite a bit bigger than the dwarf planet Pluto.

Now if the moon is really that huge, how far away is it from us to seem this small in the night sky? 370 km, as far as the ISS maybe? No. At that distance, gravitational forces would rip the moon apart. At 36000 km, it would be as far away as our most distant satellite. Let's adjust the distance to reality. Pretty far away, right?

A 747 would need 28 straight days to fly to the moon, and even with our current technology, we'd need two full days. And in a car, a lot of time. So how big is the moon? Well, it kind of depends how you define "big"; but seriously though, it's pretty big.

Hey Youtube, we'll try something new this month, Mo(o)n May. One video about cool moon stuff each Monday in May. So, see you next week! Subtitles by the Amara.org community.

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