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Moon · Question
How far away is the Moon, really?
Most solar-system diagrams compress size or distance. First travel through an illustrative perspective view between Earth and the Moon. Then verify the actual size ratio and orbital separation against an exact-scale ruler without enlarging either body.
Visual model
To scale, both size and distance.
Approximate near / average / far distances measured center to center. These are representative orbital distances, not today's measured separation. Body diameters and the distance scale remain unchanged.
Travel from Earth to the Moon.
Watch Earth shrink behind you and the Moon emerge ahead. Scrub the journey, or launch a single guided flythrough.
Continuous motion is disabled by your reduced-motion setting. Use the position slider or Earth/Moon buttons to change the view.
The perspective journey is optional. The exact-scale distance reference below remains available.
The spheres' relative radii and center-to-center separation use one physical scale. Perspective, camera route, travel duration, lighting and Moon surface styling are illustrative. The 12.5-second playback does not represent a spacecraft speed, the light-travel time or today's lunar phase. Earth uses a processed NASA Blue Marble composite, not live weather. The Moon surface uses a compact map from the NASA SVS CGI Moon Kit, based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera data with polar supplemental imagery (visualization by Ernie Wright / NASA SVS); it is processed for educational rendering, not a live lunar photograph. A procedural appearance is used only if the lunar map cannot load.
Open the exact-scale distance ruler Earth and Moon at proportional diameters, with the real gap
Earth
Moon
Scroll for Moon →
Mean center-to-center separation: 384,400 km (30.13 Earth diameters). One pixel ≈ 213 km. Earth is 60px across; Moon is 16px across.
The reference ruler uses one linear distance scale — unlike the perspective camera view. Open it to check body sizes and the gap without any perspective exaggeration.
Measurable fact
A surprising fact about that gap.
384,400 kmAverage Earth-Moon distance, center to center.
30.1 EarthsThat distance in Earth-diameters.
27%The Moon's diameter compared to Earth's — unusually large for a moon.
A near matchThe other seven planets' mean diameters total roughly 380,000 km — comparable to the 384,400 km center-to-center distance. They do not literally all fit between the two surfaces at the average distance.
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Why solar system diagrams aren't to scale
Why the full solar system can't get this same treatment.
Moon
Moon phases
Back to the interactive Moon phase model.