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The distance between the Moon and Earth varies from around 356,400 km (221,500 mi) to 406,700 km (252,700 mi) (apogee), making the Moon's distance and apparent size fluctuate up to 14%. [202] [203] On average the Moon's angular diameter is about 0.52°, roughly the same apparent size as the Sun (see § Eclipses).
In contrast, the Lunar distance (LD or ), or Earth–Moon characteristic distance, is a unit of measure in astronomy. More technically, it is the semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit . The lunar distance is on average approximately 385,000 km (239,000 mi), or 1.28 light-seconds ; this is roughly 30 times Earth's diameter or 9.5 times ...
3.476 Mm – diameter of Earth's Moon; 3.643 Mm – diameter of Io, a moon of Jupiter; 4.821 Mm – diameter of Callisto, a moon of Jupiter; 4.879 Mm – diameter of Mercury; 5.150 Mm – diameter of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn; 5.262 Mm – diameter of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System; 6.371 Mm – radius of ...
Charon, discovered in 1978, has the distinction of being the solar system's largest moon relative in size to the planet it orbits. It is about half the diameter and an eighth the mass of Pluto, a ...
With a diameter of about 5,270 kilometres (3,270 mi) and a mass of 1.48 × 10 20 tonnes (1.48 × 10 23 kg; 3.26 × 10 23 lb), Ganymede is the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. [45] It is slightly more massive than the second most massive moon, Saturn's satellite Titan, and is more than
The first attempt to measure the diameter of Triton was made by Gerard Kuiper in 1954. He obtained a value of 3,800 km. Subsequent measurement attempts arrived at values ranging from 2,500 to 6,000 km, or from slightly smaller than the Moon (3,474.2 km) to nearly half the diameter of Earth. [81]
On Jan. 27, Blue Ghost captured the first images of the moon in the distance days after it fired its engines in a critical burn to raise its apogee – the point when it is furthest from Earth in ...
The largest possible apparent diameter of the Moon is the same 12% larger (as perigee versus apogee distances) than the smallest; the apparent area is 25% more and so is the amount of light it reflects toward Earth. The variance in the Moon's orbital distance corresponds with changes in its tangential and angular speeds, per Kepler's second law.