• Question: Approximatley, how far away is the moon

    Asked by to Nat, Nate, Roberto, Sam, Sarah on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sarah Casewell

      Sarah Casewell answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      The moon is about 380 000 km away! This is actually pretty near as far as things in space go.

    • Photo: Sam Connolly

      Sam Connolly answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      As Sarah says, on average the moon is about 380,000 km away, but the distance actually changes a lot! The orbit of the moon isn’t actually a circle, it’s an ellipse (squashed circle, similar to a rugby ball outline), which means some times it’s closer and sometimes it’s further away. At the closest point, it’s only about 362,000 km away and at the furthest point it’s more than 405,000 km away, which is difference of about 43,000 km! That’s the same distance as going all the way around the Earth and back to where you started! It’s also the reason why the moon sometimes looks bigger and sometimes looks smaller.

    • Photo: Natasha Stephen

      Natasha Stephen answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Yep, 380,000 km away, which might sound like a lot but it’s very close! The distance between Earth and Jupiter for example is 588, 000, 000 km!

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