Moon Facts

The Moon has a diameter of approximately 3,500km and it is approximately 380,000km from Earth.

         
pics - NASA

Although it is not the largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system it is very large compared to the size of the planet it orbits. Its diameter is only 3.7 times smaller than the Earth.

One of the most remarkable coincidences is that the size of the Moon as it appears in the sky is just about the same as the apparent size of the Sun. More about that later.

The Moon has no atmosphere. It probably never had one. If we went up there and gave it an atmosphere it would float off into space as the Moon's gravity would not be strong enough to retain it.

Days and nights are 14 times longer than on Earth. There is a huge range of temperatures, from -170 to +130 degrees centigrade.