The Moon
Moon of EarthMajor moonclaimed
The only other world humans have stood on, and the reason Earth has tides.
Where it is right now
The Moon is in Scorpius, 401,225 km away, magnitude -9.1.
Computed for 16 September 2026, 23:00 UTC, and recomputed at least hourly. This page is cached, so treat the line above as accurate to the hour rather than to the second. The map shows the live position.
Position from astronomy-engine's VSOP87-derived series, accurate to about an arcsecond.
See The Moon on the mapFacts
Every line carries the source it came from.
- Mean radius
- 1737.4 kmSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Physical Parameters
- Orbits
- Earth, 384,400 km out on averageSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
- Orbital period
- 27.3 daysSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
- Orbit shape
- eccentricity 0.0554, inclined 5.16 degrees to the eclipticSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
Physical size
- Mean radius
- 1,737 km
- Diameter
- 3,475 km across
Orbit
Elements are relative to Earth.
- Average distance from Earth
- 384,400 km
- Closest and furthest
- 363,104 km to 405,696 km
- Eccentricity
- 0.0554, slightly elliptical
- Inclination to Earth's reference plane
- 5.16 degrees
- Orbital period
- 27.3 days
- Longitude of ascending node
- 125.08 degrees
- Argument of periapsis
- 318.15 degrees
- Mean anomaly at J2000.0
- 135.27 degrees
Family
Orbits Earth.
Who holds this body
Catalog id the-moon. 3,172 objects on the map, of which 171 are hand-authored with sourced facts.