Distance from Earth and moon

Scale of the distance from the Earth to the moon

When we observe the satellite of our planet, it does not seem to you that it is much closer than it really is. And is that the distance from earth to moon it is something that has been tried to measure for many years to get a notion of what the universe really is. To get an idea of ​​the distance between our planet and its satellite, we are going to use some images and explanations to make it easier to understand.

In this article we are going to show you what is the distance from the Earth to the moon and how to calculate it.

Distance from Earth to Moon

Distance from Earth to Moon

Surely many times we have heard about the distance between our planet and its satellite in numbers. Specifically there are 384.403 kilometers of distance. As expected, this distance is something incomprehensible for the human being, since we are not used to traveling these distances. This number has been repeated so many times that it is as if it has lost its essence and its meaning.

It seems a somewhat inaccurate figure and does not reveal any special data. When we read this figure we can think that it is a lot of distance in which it separates us. However, our brain cannot understand the magnitude of this distance. Since we are used to seeing the moon from Earth and appearing quite large to ourselves, it can make us appear that it is much closer than it actually is.

To understand a little about the distance we must look at the first photo of this subheading to see the scale a little more real. When we see the photo we can analyze the problem of assimilating this distance for the human being.

Origin of calculations of the distance from Earth to the moon

All planets

The first time the distance between planet and satellite was calculated it was in 150 BC by Hipparchus. In order to calculate this distance, it was based on the curvature of the shadow that our planet casts on the moon during a lunar eclipse. At that time, the distance was not completely correct, since a figure of 348.000 kilometers was obtained. We must assess the merit of Hipparchus a since with the little technology that was available at that time, it only had an error of less than 10% of the real distance between these two celestial bodies.

Thanks to the technology we have today we can calculate this distance very precisely. To do this, the time it takes for light to travel is measured from LIDAR stations on Earth to retroreflectors that have been placed on the moon. Even so, the distance is such a large number that it is difficult to assimilate in our mind.

To give us an idea, between the distance from the Earth to the moon all the planets of the solar system. With this comparison it can be seen that there really is a great distance. Huge planets like Jupiter y Saturn they are not large enough that their diameters are greater than the distance between these two celestial bodies.

With this image of beautiful enough so that the human being can completely change the perspective that we have of the distance between the moon and the Earth. With the assimilation of this distance we can also better understand the force of gravity exerted by our planet when it is the size it is. Another important aspect is to assess whether man has really been able to reach the moon or not.

Travel to the moon

Moon and Earth

To get an idea of ​​the enormous distance between these two celestial bodies, we are going to extrapolate something common between us. We are going to simulate a trip from Earth to the moon by car. More or less you can travel on average at 120 km / h in a car so that we are not fined for speeding.

If we decided to travel by car to the moon, it would take us about five months to get there. Keep in mind that these five months would occur if and only if we did not stop once during the entire journey.

Either extrapolating it other more distant trips as the closest star we have, we would take little more than 4 years in traveling there. We better not even talk about visiting our neighboring galaxy called Andromeda. This galaxy is more than 2 million light years away from us, so it is better not to imagine how long it would take if we wanted to go by car.

As you can see, from so much talking about the distance from the Earth to the moon we have created a very insignificant figure and what does not really tell us what it is. I hope that with this information you can better know the distance at which our satellite is.


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