Facts about the Moon's Vital Statistics

• Distance From Earth: 225,745 miles
• Length of a Day: 27.3 days
• Radius: 1,080 miles
• Diameter: 2,160 miles
• Weight: 81 Quintillion Tons
• Surface Temp (Day): 273° F
• Surface Temp (Night): - 244° F
• Gravity At Surface: 0.1667 g (1/6 Earth's)
• Orbital Speed 2,287 mph
• Driving time by car (@70 mph): 135 days
• Flying time by rocket: 60 to 70 hrs.
• No. of Men Who Have Walked on the Surface: 12
• Age of Oldest Rock Collected: 4.5 Billions yrs.
• Widest Craters: 140 miles (dia.)
• Deepest Craters: 15,000+ (ft.)
• Highest Mountains: 16,000+ (ft.)

Interesting Facts about the Moon

• From earth, we only ever get to see one side of the Moon - the light side. We never knew what the far side of the moon looked like, until the Soviet spacecraft, Luna 3, flew around it and took pictures in 1959.
• Because the moon is egg-shaped with one heavier side, it is unable to spin freely and reveal the dark side.
• Because of a lack of wind and no precipitation to cause erosion, the foot-prints on the Moon will stay there for millions of years.
• Because the moon has no atmosphere, sound cannot travel and so even if you were to shout as loud as possible, someone standing next to you wouldn't hear a thing.
• The moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of about 34cm each year
• Despite looking like a large ball of dull rock, the moon has actually had a volcanic history.
• Scientists love to give technical, latin or numeric names to just about everything, but whilst some people refer to it as 'Lunar' (Latin) or Selene (Greek), essentially it's just known as 'The Moon'.
• Despite it's size, the Moon isn't classified as a planet as it orbits the earth and not the sun.

Facts about Moon Exploration

• For centuries, many people used to believe that the moon was a perfect sphere that had been created by the gods. In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei noticed that actually the Moon had many craters that were likely to have been caused by meteorite impacts.
• The Soviet spacecraft 'Luna 2' was the first space probe to land on the moon on 13th September 1959
• On 7th October 1959 the Soviet (Russian) spacecraft, Luna 3, sent back the first pictures of the dark side of the moon.
• On 20 July 1969, the American astronaut Neil Armstong, became the first man to walk on the surface of the moon
• As he placed his foot on the moon Neil Armstong said "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."