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The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
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 ...
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.
It was believed that the cutoff for round objects is somewhere between 100 km and 200 km in radius if they have a large amount of ice in their makeup; [1] however, later studies revealed that icy satellites as large as Iapetus (1,470 kilometers in diameter) are not in hydrostatic equilibrium at this time, [2] and a 2019 assessment suggests that ...
The book On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, which is ascribed to Aristarchus, says the distance to the Sun is 18 to 20 times the distance to the Moon, whereas the true ratio is about 389.174. The latter estimate was based on the angle between the half-moon and the Sun, which he estimated as 87° (the true value being close to 89.853°
While the size difference between a supermoon and a typical full moon may not be immediately apparent to the naked eye, The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the first full moon of summer will be more ...
Diameter of the Moon: 5.2 Mm Typical distance covered by the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans automobile endurance race 6.259 Mm Length of the Great Wall of China: 6.371 Mm Average radius of Earth: 6.378 Mm Equatorial radius of Earth 6.6 Mm Approximate length of the two longest rivers, the Nile and the Amazon: 7.821 Mm Length of the Trans ...
Saturn's moon Mimas is known for its uncanny resemblance to the dreaded Death Star in the original "Star Wars" movie. ... has an average diameter of about 250 miles (400 km). It is tidally locked ...