How wide is the Moon?

Compared with things you know

• About 27% as wide as Earth (12,742 km)
• The Sun (1,391,400 km) is about 400 times as wide.

Moon dimensions

How big the Moon is

NASA's fact sheet gives the Moon a volumetric mean radius of 1,737.4 km, so its mean diameter is 3,474.8 km (2,159 mi). The equatorial radius is 1,738.1 km and the polar radius is 1,736.0 km, so the Moon is very nearly round. On its Moon facts page NASA rounds the radius to about 1,740 km (1,080 mi). Wikipedia gives the circumference at the equator as 10,921 km (6,786 mi).^[1][2][3]

Compared with Earth

NASA says that with a radius of about 1,740 km the Moon is less than a third of the width of Earth. The fact sheet is more exact: the Moon's mean radius is 0.2727 of Earth's. Wikipedia describes the Moon's diameter as roughly one-quarter of Earth's. NASA also compares the pair to a coffee bean beside a nickel: if Earth were the size of a nickel, the Moon would be about as big as a coffee bean.^[1][2][3]

Distance

NASA gives the Moon's average distance from Earth as 384,400 km (238,855 mi). The orbit is not circular. The NASA fact sheet lists mean perigee, the closest point, as 363,300 km and mean apogee, the farthest, as 405,500 km. Wikipedia gives wider extremes for individual passes, from 356,400 to 406,700 km, but the NASA means are used here.^[1][2][3]

Did you know?

The Moon is about 27% as wide as Earth: 3,475 km across, compared with Earth’s 12,742 km.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Moon Facts - NASA Science science.nasa.gov
2. Moon Fact Sheet - NASA NSSDC nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
3. Moon - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org

More sizes

• Earth12,742 km · 7,918 mi across
• Saturn (with rings)280,000 km · 173,984 mi across
• Sun1,391,400 km · 864,576 mi across
• Saturn V moon rocket111 m · 364 ft tall
• International Space Station109 m · 358 ft wide
• SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket70 m · 230 ft tall

See the Sun, planets and Moon to scale

See all 184 sizes