Moon Fact Sheet

All this information came from a employee of NASA: Dr. David R. Willams.

Moon/Earth Comparison

Bulk parameters

                                   Moon         Earth      Ratio (Moon/Earth)

Mass (1024 kg)                    0.07349       5.9736     0.0123    

Volume (1010 km3)                 2.1973      108.321      0.0203

Equatorial radius (km)             1738          6378      0.2725      

Polar radius (km)                  1735          6356      0.2730

Volumetric mean radius (km)        1737.5        6371      0.2727

Ellipticity                       0.002         0.0034     0.588    

Mean density (kg/m3)               3340          5520      0.6051      

Surface gravity (m/s2)            1.62          9.78       0.166    

Escape velocity (km/s)            2.38         11.2        0.213    

GM (x 106 km3/s2)                 0.0049        0.3986     0.0123 

Bond albedo                       0.067         0.385      0.174

Visual geometric albedo           0.12          0.367      0.327    

Visual magnitude V(1,0)          +0.21         -3.86          -

Solar irradiance (W/m2)            1380          1380      1.000      

Black-body temperature (K)          274.5         247.3    1.110      

Topographic range (km)               16            20      0.800      

Moment of inertia (I/MR2)         0.394         0.3308     1.191

Orbital parameters (for orbit about the Earth)

                                    Moon         

Semimajor axis (106 km)             0.3844                 

Perigee (106 km)                    0.3633

Apogee (106 km)                     0.4055

Revolution period (days)           27.322              

Synodic period (days)              29.53               

Mean orbital velocity (km/s)        1.023                  

Orbit inclination (deg)             5.145                    

Orbit eccentricity                  0.0549              

Sidereal rotation period (hrs)    655.728                

Equatorial inclination (deg)        6.68                   

Recession rate from Earth (cm/yr)   3.8