☾ The Moon

STATISTICS

ORBITAL RADIUS

380,000 km from the Earth (30 times the diameter of the Earth)

ORBITAL PERIOD

27 Earth days

DIAMETER

3,500 km (0.27 times the diameter of the Earth)

ROTATIONAL PERIOD

27 Earth days (the same as the orbital period because the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth)

MASS

1% of the mass of the Earth

SURFACE GRAVITY

about one-sixth of the gravitational force on Earth

ALBEDO

0.12 (similar to that of a road)

Libration

Although the moon is tidally locked to the Earth, the process isn’t full complete: it does appear to rock back and forth a little so that we see slightly more than half of it in total.