Featured planetary moon
Moon
A familiar companion that makes Earth a two-body story.
The Moon is the nearest world beyond Earth and the reference point for almost every human-scale idea of spaceflight. Its synchronous rotation keeps one hemisphere broadly facing Earth while its changing geometry drives the familiar cycle of phases.
- Orbit representation
- Representative mean elements
- Surface
- derived map
Reference measurements
The numbers that shape this world
- Mean radius
- 1,737.4 km
- Mean orbital distance
- 384,400 kmSemi-major axis around the parent body.
- Orbital period
- 27.322 days
- Eccentricity
- 0.055
- Inclination
- 5.16°Earth mean ecliptic at J2000
- Rotation
- Tidally locked
World portrait
The system seen from home
This page treats the Moon as an orbiting world rather than a decorative light. Its distance, period and reference plane are shown beside the limits of the mean-element model used in Explore.
System geometry
Moon in motion around Earth
Moon travels at a mean orbital distance of 384,400 km and completes a circuit in 27.322 days. Its eccentricity of 0.055 and 5.16° inclination are read against Earth mean ecliptic at J2000. Synchronous rotation keeps the same hemisphere broadly oriented toward the parent body.
Representation notes
What Explore is showing
JPL fitted mean elements describe general orbit shape and orientation; they are not an accurate ephemeris.
Reviewed official global map prepared as a 1K display texture. Small no-data seams were cleaned without inventing large-scale landmarks; final seam, pole and lighting review remains device-dependent.
Provenance