The Distance Between the Earth and the Moon |
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[NMSU, N. Vogt] |
The distance between the Earth and the Moon is shown to scale in the figure above. The average distance between the two bodies is 384,400 kilometers, or 60 times the radius of the Earth.
It varies from 356,400 kilometers at perigee (the Moon's closest approach to Earth) to 406,700 kilometers at apogee (its farthest distance), or by ± 6%, over the course of a year. This will produce a small, but observable, difference in the apparent size of the Moon as viewed from Earth.