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Organization:
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Alexa Internethas been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the
Wayback Machineafter an embargo period.
this data is currently not publicly accessible.
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20100323165650/http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov:80/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html
Moon Fact Sheet
![[Global view of Moon]](/web/20100323165650/http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/moonfact_bg.gif)
Moon/Earth Comparison
Bulk parameters
Moon Earth Ratio (Moon/Earth)
Mass (1024 kg) 0.07349 5.9736 0.0123
Volume (1010 km3) 2.1958 108.321 0.0203
Equatorial radius (km) 1738.1 6378.1 0.2725
Polar radius (km) 1736.0 6356.8 0.2731
Volumetric mean radius (km) 1737.1 6371.0 0.2727
Ellipticity (Flattening) 0.0012 0.00335 0.36
Mean density (kg/m3) 3350 5515 0.607
Surface gravity (m/s2) 1.62 9.80 0.165
Surface acceleration (m/s2) 1.62 9.78 0.166
Escape velocity (km/s) 2.38 11.2 0.213
GM (x 106 km3/s2) 0.0049 0.3986 0.0123
Bond albedo 0.11 0.306 0.360
Visual geometric albedo 0.12 0.367 0.330
Visual magnitude V(1,0) +0.21 -3.86 -
Solar irradiance (W/m2) 1367.6 1367.6 1.000
Black-body temperature (K) 270.7 254.3 1.064
Topographic range (km) 16 20 0.800
Moment of inertia (I/MR2) 0.394 0.3308 1.191
J2 (x 10-6) 202.7 1082.63 0.187
Orbital parameters (for orbit about the Earth)
Moon
Semimajor axis (106 km) 0.3844
Perigee (106 km)* 0.3633
Apogee (106 km)* 0.4055
Revolution period (days) 27.3217
Synodic period (days) 29.53
Mean orbital velocity (km/s) 1.023
Max. orbital velocity (km/s) 1.076
Min. orbital velocity (km/s) 0.964
Inclination to ecliptic (deg) 5.145
Inclination to equator (deg) 18.28 - 28.58
Orbit eccentricity 0.0549
Sidereal rotation period (hrs) 655.728
Obliquity to orbit (deg) 6.68
Recession rate from Earth (cm/yr) 3.8
Mean values at opposition from Earth
Distance from Earth (equator, km) 378,000
Apparent diameter (seconds of arc) 1896
Apparent visual magnitude -12.74
* These represent mean apogee and perigee for the lunar orbit.
The orbit changes over the course of the year so the distance
from the Moon to Earth roughly ranges from 357,000 km to 407,000 km.
Lunar Atmosphere
Diurnal temperature range: >100 K to <400 K (roughly -250 F to +250 F)
Total mass of atmosphere: ~25,000 kg
Surface pressure (night): 3 x 10-15 bar (2 x 10-12 torr)
Abundance at surface: 2 x 105 particles/cm3
Estimated Composition (particles per cubic cm):
Helium 4 (4He) - 40,000 ; Neon 20 (20Ne) - 40,000 ; Hydrogen (H2) - 35,000
Argon 40 (40Ar) - 30,000 ; Neon 22 (22Ne) - 5,000 ; Argon 36 (36Ar) - 2,000
Methane - 1000 ; Ammonia - 1000 ; Carbon Dioxide (CO2) - 1000
Trace Oxygen (O+), Aluminum (Al+), Silicon (Si+)
Possible Phosphorus (P+), Sodium (Na+), Magnesium (Mg+)
Composition of the tenuous lunar atmosphere is poorly known and variable,
these are estimates of the upper limits of the nighttime ambient atmosphere
composition. Daytime levels were difficult to measure due to heating and
outgassing of Apollo surface experiments.
For information on the Earth, see the Earth Fact Sheet.
If no sub- or superscripts appear on this page - for example, if the "Mass" is given in units of "(1024 kg)" - you may want to check the notes on the sub- and superscripts.
Notes on the factsheets
- definitions of parameters, units, notes on sub- and superscripts, etc.
Planetary Fact Table
- metric units
Planetary Fact Table
- U.S. units
Planetary Fact Table
- Earth ratio
Moon Home Page
Directory to other Planetary Fact Sheets
![[NASA Logo]](/web/20100323165650im_/http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/logo/nasa_logo.gif){kind=logo}
Author/Curator:Dr. David R. Williams, dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDC, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258