How long does it take the Moon to Orbit the Earth?
Created | Updated Aug 24, 2006
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How long does it take the Moon to Orbit the Earth?
The Moon is our nearest neighbor. It is only 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers) from us. It is 2160 miles (3,476 kilometers) in diameter and it’s gravity is only 0.165 times that of the Earth. With such a low gravity the Moon had no atmosphere and that means there is no erosion of weathering on its surface. The craters of its surface are years old and the footprints left by the moon astronauts will last for millions of years.
On the southern pole of the Moon there is crater that the Sun never gets into and the probe Clementine revealed that there was frozen water in this crater. It is also known now that there is also water under the surface of the Moon.
The Moon always orbits with the same face facing us and the far side was not seen until the Russian space craft Luna 3 (or Lunik 3) went round the Moon in 1959 and sent back photographs. The Moon shines with no light of it’s own and reflects the light of the Sun. It takes 27.3 days (0.081 years) to orbit the Earth.
I have made several batches of questions. This question is from the second batch. To find other batches of questions plus the newest one return to the main h2g2 as Q and A page using the first link below. Other questions in this batch are also below.
| h2g2as Q and A | Find the answers to many space related questions. |
| What is between Mars and Jupiter in our Solar System? | The large belt of asteroid that sperates the terrestiral planets from the gas giants. |
| How far away is the sun? | The distance to our star. How far its light and heat has to travel. |
| How long does it take the Moon to Orbit the Earth? | Our nearest neighbour's orbit defines our months. |
| How often does Halley’s Comet pay us a visit? | The most famous comet and the only comet not to be named after the discoverer. |
| Which planets have a ring-system? | The Lord of the Rings. |
| What is the giant red spot on Jupiter? | The spot light is on Jupiter. |
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