# How far away is the Moon right now? > The Moon's distance from Earth right now, live from NASA JPL. Why it changes, its closest and farthest, the light time, and the mirrors Apollo left. HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/earth-and-moon/the-moon/how-far-is-the-moon Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:45 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page. Right now the Moon is 366,753 kilometres from Earth, measured from centre to centre. The number changes as you read, because the Moon is always moving a little closer or a little farther away. Light crosses that gap in 1.22 seconds. On average the Moon is 384,400 kilometres away. But its path around us is not a perfect circle. In every orbit it swings in to a closest point and out to a farthest one. - Time light takes to travel from the Moon to Earth, at today's distance: 1.22 s - The Moon's average distance from Earth: 384,400 km ## Our nearest neighbour What is the Moon? The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite: a ball of rock 3,474.8 kilometres wide that circles our planet about once a month. Earth is about 3.7 times as wide. The Moon has no air and makes no light of its own. What we see is sunlight bouncing off its grey dust and rock. It is the only other world people have walked on, and it is close enough to shape our days. Its pull raises the tides in the oceans. Its distance is never quite the same. The Moon's path around Earth is a slightly stretched loop, not a circle, so in every orbit it swings in to its closest point and out to its farthest. The Sun's pull tugs on that loop too. It stretches it more in some months than in others, and slowly turns it around. That is why the number at the top of this page never stands still. Comparisons are computed live on the HTML page. ## Closest and farthest Perigee and apogee Astronomers call the closest point of each orbit perigee, and the farthest apogee. They are not the same from month to month. Between 2016 and 2035, the Moon comes closest on 25 November 2034, at 356,445 kilometres. It was farthest in March 2020, at 406,692 kilometres. A Moon at perigee looks a little bigger and brighter than a Moon at apogee. When a full Moon falls near perigee, people call it a supermoon. It is not an official term in astronomy. NASA uses it for a full Moon that comes close to perigee, and a few happen each year, one after another. The difference is real but gentle. Side by side in two photos, a supermoon is clearly larger than a full Moon at apogee. Alone in the night sky, with nothing to compare it with, few people could tell. ## A second away, for light The distance in light Light is the fastest thing there is. It moves at 299,792.458 kilometres every second, fast enough to go around Earth's equator in 0.13 seconds. Even light needs a moment to reach the Moon. Right now the trip takes 1.22 seconds. So the Moon you see tonight is the Moon of a moment ago. The light that reaches you from the Sun left it minutes ago, and the light of the stars left them years or ages ago. Of all the worlds in the night sky, the Moon is the one we see almost as it is now. That small delay was easy to hear during the Apollo missions. Every word between Houston and the Moon crossed the gap at the speed of light, there and back, so each answer came after a short pause. ## Measured with mirrors Lunar laser ranging How do we know the distance so well? The astronauts of Apollo 11, 14 and 15 left mirrors on the Moon: panels of glass corner cubes that send light straight back to where it came from. Two Soviet rovers, Lunokhod 1 and 2, carry smaller ones. Observatories on Earth fire laser pulses at them and time the echo. The beam spreads out on the way, and only a tiny few of its photons make it back. But that is enough. The round trip takes twice the light time at the top of this page, and timing it tells us the distance to within millimetres, about the thickness of an orange peel. The mirrors need no power, and they have been in use since 1969. They are the last Apollo experiment still running. In 2025 a new reflector reached the Moon on the Blue Ghost lander. ## The Moon is drifting away A slow goodbye Those laser pulses found something remarkable: the Moon is slowly moving away from us. Each year it is about 3.8 centimetres farther from Earth. NASA compares it with the speed at which your fingernails grow. The cause is the tides. The Moon's pull raises bulges in Earth's oceans, and Earth's spin carries them slightly ahead of the Moon. Their gravity tugs the Moon forward along its orbit, and it spirals outward. In return, Earth's spin slows down very slightly, so our days are slowly getting longer. There is nothing to fear in it. Over a lifetime the change is far too small to see. But it means the Moon in your sky is not quite the Moon your grandparents saw, and the mirrors on its surface notice the difference every year. ## Every planet in the gap How big is the gap? A famous picture shows all the other planets lined up in the space between Earth and the Moon. Does it work? Add up the widths of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and you get 387,943 kilometres. The gap itself is a little shorter than the distance from centre to centre, because Earth and the Moon take up some of it. At the average distance, the planets don't quite fit. They fit when the Moon is near apogee, the far part of its orbit, which it reaches in every orbit. So the picture is nearly right, and true for part of every month. It also shows how empty space is. Seven worlds, two of them giants, laid side by side, and they barely fill the space between us and our nearest neighbour. ## FAQ ### How far away is the Moon right now? 366,753 kilometres, from the centre of Earth to the centre of the Moon. The figure comes from NASA JPL's Horizons system and changes all the time. On average the Moon is 384,400 kilometres away. ### How long does light take to travel from the Moon to Earth? Right now 1.22 seconds. It is a little less when the Moon is near perigee and a little more near apogee. ### When is the Moon closest to Earth? At perigee, which comes once in every orbit, about once a month. The closest perigee between 2016 and 2035 is on 25 November 2034, at 356,445 kilometres. A full Moon near perigee is called a supermoon. ### Is the Moon moving away from Earth? Yes, by about 3.8 centimetres a year. We know because we bounce lasers off mirrors the Apollo astronauts left there. The tides cause it, and they slowly lengthen Earth's day. ### Could all the planets fit between Earth and the Moon? Only when the Moon is near its farthest. The seven other planets add up to 387,943 kilometres across, a little more than the gap between the two surfaces at the average distance. ## Related - [The Moon](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/earth-and-moon/the-moon.md) - [How long does sunlight take to reach Earth?](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/the-sun/sunlight-to-earth.md) - [Where are the planets right now?](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/where-are-the-planets.md) The light reaching your eyes from the Moon tonight left it a moment ago, after bouncing off dust that people once walked through. What would you want to say to someone standing up there, looking back at us? ## Sources - Diameter of a grain of sand (Estimated): [USGS: USGS Open-File Report 2006-1195: Nomenclature](https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1195/htmldocs/nomenclature.htm) - Diameter of a regulation football (size 5) (Measured, with error): [The IFAB: Laws of the Game, Law 2 – The Ball](https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/the-ball/) - Earth's circumference at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Equatorial diameter of Neptune (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Neptune Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neptunefact.html) - How far the Moon moves away from Earth each year (measured by lunar laser ranging) (Measured, with error): [International Laser Ranging Service (NASA Goddard): Lunar Laser Ranging: science contributions](https://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/scienceContributions/lunar.html); [NASA: The Apollo Experiment That Keeps on Giving](https://www.nasa.gov/missions/apollo/apollo-11/the-apollo-experiment-that-keeps-on-giving/); [NASA: Laser Beams Reflected Between Earth and Moon Boost Science](https://www.nasa.gov/missions/laser-beams-reflected-between-earth-and-moon-boost-science/) - Speed of light in a vacuum (Measured): [BIPM: SI defining constants](https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/si-defining-constants) - The International Space Station's orbital speed (Measured): [NASA: Station Facts](https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/) - The Moon's average distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/) - The Moon's closest distance from Earth between 2016 and 2035 (the perigee of 25 November 2034) (Measured): [NASA: Supermoons](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/) - The Moon's distance from Earth right now (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/) - The Moon's farthest distance from Earth between 2016 and 2035 (the apogee of 24 March 2020) (Measured): [NASA: Supermoons](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/) - The Moon's mean diameter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Moon Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html) - Time light takes to travel from the Moon to Earth, at today's distance (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons observer ephemeris of the Moon from Earth (illumination, range and one-way light time)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='301'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&CENTER='500@399'&EPHEM_TYPE='OBSERVER'&QUANTITIES='10,20,21'&START_TIME='2026-10-29%2019:00'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-29%2020:00'&STEP_SIZE='1h') - Typical adult walking speed (Estimated): [Physiotherapy (Elsevier): Normal walking speed: a descriptive meta-analysis (Physiotherapy 97(3), 182–189)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2010.12.004) - Typical muzzle velocity of a rifle bullet (Estimated): [Headquarters, Department of the Army: FM 3-22.9 Rifle Marksmanship: M16A1, M16A2/3, M16A4, and M4 Carbine (April 2003)](https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM3-22.9%2803%29.pdf) - Widths of the seven planets other than Earth, added together (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Planetary Fact Sheet - Metric](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/)