How big is the Moon?
The Moon is about 3,474 kilometers wide, about a quarter of Earth's diameter. Its surface area is about the same as Africa and Australia combined.
The Moon is the fifth-largest moon in the solar system, after Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Io. It has about 1.2 percent of Earth's mass, so its gravity is about one-sixth as strong. About 50 Moons could fit inside Earth by volume.
The Moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 384,400 kilometers. You could fit all the other planets of the solar system side by side in the gap between Earth and the Moon. Light takes about 1.3 seconds to travel from the Moon to Earth.
Looks can deceive
Although the Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, it is also about 400 times closer, so both appear about the same size in our sky. This coincidence allows total solar eclipses, when the Moon exactly covers the Sun's bright disk.
Did You Know?
The Moon always shows the same face to Earth because it rotates once on its axis in the same time it takes to orbit Earth.