BotBuhdy logoBotBuhdyMoon Guide

Fun Facts & FAQ

Surprising things about the Moon

Quick facts to impress your friends, and straight answers to the questions people ask most about the Moon.

The sunlit far side of the Moon passing in front of the blue and white Earth, seen from a million miles away

NASA/NOAA, DSCOVR EPIC camera, July 2015. Public domain.

Moon facts

1.3 secondsMoonlight takes about 1.3 seconds to reach you. You always see the Moon as it was a moment ago.
All the planets fitAt its average distance, all the other planets of the solar system could line up side by side in the gap between Earth and the Moon, with a little room to spare.
Coal-darkThe Moon reflects only about 12% of the sunlight that hits it, about as much as worn asphalt. It looks bright only because the night sky is so dark.
Full is 10× brighterA full Moon is roughly ten times brighter than a half Moon, not twice, because at full there are no shadows and the soil reflects strongly straight back (the opposition effect).
MoonquakesThe Moon has quakes. Shallow moonquakes measured by Apollo instruments reached about magnitude 5 and lasted for many minutes, because the dry rock rings like a bell.
Footprints lastWith no wind or rain, the Apollo bootprints could stay sharp for millions of years, slowly worn down only by tiny meteorite impacts.
One sixthYou would weigh about one sixth as much on the Moon. A good basketball jumper could leap about 4 metres high, if their spacesuit let them.
Not round insideThe Moon's centre of mass is about 2 km closer to Earth than its geometric centre, and its crust is thicker on the far side.
Earth's phasesFrom the Moon, Earth goes through phases too, opposite to the Moon's. When we see a new Moon, the Moon sees a "full Earth".
Still EarthFrom the near side, Earth hangs almost still in the sky, wobbling slightly. It never rises or sets, except near the edges of the near side.
A slow dayA day on the Moon, from one sunrise to the next, lasts about 29.5 Earth days: two weeks of sunlight, then two weeks of night.
Rubbish dumpThere are about 200 tonnes of human-made objects on the Moon: landers, rovers, crashed probes, flags, golf balls, family photos and nearly 100 bags of astronaut waste.
Golf on the MoonAlan Shepard hit two golf balls on Apollo 14 in 1971. Scans of the photos suggest the longer drive went about 40 yards (36 m), not the "miles and miles" he joked about.
Ashes on the MoonPlanetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, who trained Apollo astronauts in geology, became the first person whose ashes reached the Moon, carried by NASA's Lunar Prospector when it was crashed into a polar crater in 1999.
Sounds of silenceThere is no air, so there is no sound. Astronauts working side by side could only talk by radio, or by touching helmets.
It smellsApollo astronauts said moon dust brought into the cabin smelled like spent gunpowder.
Tree from the MoonApollo 14 carried about 500 tree seeds around the Moon. Back on Earth they grew into "Moon trees", still standing in parks and schools in the US and elsewhere.
Days used to be shorterWhen the dinosaurs lived, the Moon was closer and Earth's day was shorter: about 23.5 hours, 70 million years ago. The Moon's tides are still slowing Earth down.

Common mix-ups

Quick answers

How old is the Moon?

About 4.46 to 4.51 billion years. It formed shortly after Earth, most likely from debris thrown out when a Mars-sized body hit the young Earth. See Birth of the Moon.

How long would it take to get to the Moon?

Apollo crews took about three days. Artemis II reached the Moon in about five days on its free-return path. At highway speed, a car would need about five and a half months, driving non-stop.

Does the Moon have gravity?

Yes, about one sixth of Earth's. That is strong enough to hold astronauts on the ground and to raise the tides in Earth's oceans.

Does the Moon have an atmosphere?

Only an extremely thin "exosphere" of atoms like helium, argon, sodium and potassium. It is so thin that, for practical purposes, the surface is in a vacuum.

Can you see the Moon from everywhere on Earth?

Yes. Everyone on Earth sees the same phase on the same night, although people in the Southern Hemisphere see it upside down compared with the north.

Why does the Moon look orange sometimes?

Near the horizon its light passes through more air, which scatters blue light away, just like a red sunset. Smoke and dust make it even more orange.

What is a supermoon?

A full Moon near the closest point of its orbit. It looks up to about 14% wider and 30% brighter than a full Moon at the farthest point. See Phases & Orbit.

Is the Moon a planet?

No. It is a natural satellite that orbits Earth. It is big for a moon, more than a quarter of Earth's diameter, so it is sometimes said Earth and the Moon are almost a double planet.

Could the Moon ever crash into Earth?

No. It is moving away by about 3.8 cm a year.

What is the Moon made of?

Rock, like Earth's outer layers: a crust rich in light-coloured anorthosite, dark basalt lava plains, a thick mantle, and a small iron core. See Inside.

Does the Moon have a name?

In English it is just "the Moon". In Latin it is Luna, which is why we say "lunar".

How many people have been to the Moon?

Twenty-four people flew to the Moon on Apollo missions and twelve walked on it. In April 2026 four more, the Artemis II crew, flew around it.

Sources and credits

  1. NASA Science, Moon facts.
  2. NASA NSSDCA, Moon fact sheet.
  3. NASA, The "Moon Trees".
  4. Lunar and Planetary Institute and NASA history office material on Apollo 14 and Shoemaker's Lunar Prospector memorial.
  5. Williams, G. E. (2000), Geological constraints on the Precambrian history of Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit, Reviews of Geophysics 38.

Photos credited to NASA, NOAA and other public-domain sources are used with thanks; BotBuhdy adds a small botbuhdy.com mark. Pictures labelled AI-generated illustration are artist-style illustrations made for this page, not photographs.