The Moon is an average of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) away. How far away is that? That’s 30 Earths.
Why mention the average distance? Well, the Moon is not always the same distance away from Earth. The orbit is not a perfect circle.
When the Moon is the farthest away, it’s 252,088 miles away. That’s almost 32 Earths. When it’s closest, the Moon is 225,623 miles away. That’s between 28 and 29 Earths.
Today, the moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches (4 cm) per year.
The moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth. In other words, the moon rotates on its axis in about the same amount of time it takes to revolve around Earth — 27 days 8 hours, which is called sidereal month. So we always see the same side of the moon; there is no “dark side of the moon.” Instead, scientists refer to the side of the moon facing away from the planet as the “far side of the moon.” The far side can be spotted by missions such as NASA’s DSCOVR satellite, which captured a video of the moon “photobombing” Earth.
A lunar month, also called a synodic month, is the time it takes for the moon to complete a lunar cycle — full moon to full moon. A lunar month is about 29 days 13 hours.
Picture Credit : Google
