Ever looked up at the night sky and thought the Moon looked close enough to touch? Or maybe it feels like a tiny pebble stuck on a black velvet curtain. It’s a weird trick of the eyes. People ask how many feet is the moon from earth all the time, usually for a science project or just to settle a bar bet, but the answer isn't a single, clean number. Space is messy.
The Moon doesn't follow a perfect circle. It’s an ellipse. This means there are times when it’s "close" and times when it’s way out there. If you want the average, you’re looking at roughly 1,261,154,856 feet. Yeah, over 1.2 billion. That’s a lot of walking.
Why the Distance Is Always Moving
Gravity is a tug-of-war. The Earth pulls the Moon, the Moon pulls back, and the Sun messes with both of them. This dance creates two specific points in the lunar orbit: perigee and apogee.
At perigee—the Moon's closest approach—it sits about 1,189,475,066 feet away.
When it hits apogee, it stretches out to 1,330,249,344 feet.
Think about that gap. The difference between its closest and farthest point is more than 140 million feet. That’s why we get "Supermoons." When the Moon hits perigee during a full moon phase, it looks roughly 14% larger and 30% brighter than a standard "Micromoon" at apogee. It's not just your imagination; it's physics.
Doing the Math (The Hard Way)
We usually talk about space in miles or kilometers. Using feet feels ridiculous because the numbers get so big they stop making sense to the human brain. To get these figures, scientists use a method called Lunar Laser Ranging.
📖 Related: 1200 C in F: Why This Massive Temperature Matters for More Than Just Science
Back during the Apollo missions, astronauts left retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. To this day, observatories like the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico fire high-powered lasers at those mirrors. They measure exactly how long it takes for the light to bounce back. Since light travels at a constant speed, we can calculate the distance down to a few millimeters.
When you convert those precise measurements into feet, you realize just how massive the void is. If you tried to drive a car to the moon at 60 mph, it would take you about six months of non-stop driving. No bathroom breaks. No gas stops. Just straight up.
The Shrinking and Growing Void
The distance isn't just fluctuating month-to-month. It’s actually changing permanently.
The Moon is leaving us.
Every single year, the Moon drifts about 1.5 inches further away from Earth. In terms of how many feet is the moon from earth, that’s about 0.125 feet added to the tally every year. It doesn't sound like much, but over millions of years, it adds up.
Why is it running away? Tidal friction. The Moon’s gravity pulls on Earth’s oceans, creating a "tidal bulge." Because Earth rotates faster than the Moon orbits, this bulge actually sits slightly ahead of the Moon. This extra mass tugs the Moon forward, giving it a tiny boost of energy that pushes it into a higher, more distant orbit.
Billions of years ago, the Moon was much closer. If you were a dinosaur looking up, the Moon would have dominated the sky, looking absolutely massive compared to what we see today.
How Many Feet Is the Moon from Earth in Perspective?
Numbers like 1.2 billion feet are hard to visualize. Let’s try to shrink the scale.
If Earth was the size of a basketball, the Moon would be the size of a tennis ball. Most people think they’d be sitting a few feet apart. In reality, at that scale, you’d have to place that tennis ball about 23 feet and 9 inches away.
You could fit every single planet in our solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, even the "demoted" Pluto—into the space between the Earth and the Moon. And you’d still have room left over for a few dwarf planets.
📖 Related: GTS Meaning on Snapchat: Why You Should Stop Guessing
Measuring the Impossible
When we talk about how many feet is the moon from earth, we also have to consider where we are measuring from. Are we talking about the surface of the Earth to the surface of the Moon? Or center-to-center?
Most scientific measurements use center-to-center. If you want the distance from where you are standing to where an astronaut would step onto the lunar dust, you have to subtract the Earth’s radius (about 20.9 million feet) and the Moon’s radius (about 5.7 million feet).
It’s also worth noting that the atmosphere refracts light, which can make the Moon look "closer" or "flatter" when it’s near the horizon. This is the "Moon Illusion." Your brain sees the Moon next to trees or buildings and tries to process its size relative to those objects. In reality, the Moon is actually slightly farther from you when it's on the horizon than when it's directly overhead, simply because you’re on the side of the Earth facing it.
The Logistics of Reaching 1.2 Billion Feet
NASA’s Artemis program is currently working on getting humans back across that 1.2-billion-foot gap. It’s not a straight shot. You can't just aim at the Moon and fire. Because both bodies are moving, spacecraft have to "lead" the target, like a quarterback throwing a football to a running receiver.
The Apollo missions took about three days to cover the distance. The New Horizons probe, which was headed to Pluto, zoomed past the Moon in just 8 hours and 35 minutes. It was moving fast. Really fast.
Actionable Steps for Amateur Moon-Watchers
If you're fascinated by the scale of our local space neighborhood, you don't need a multi-billion dollar laser. You can track the changes in distance yourself.
- Track the Perigee: Use an app like Stellarium or a simple lunar calendar to find out when the next perigee occurs.
- The Thumb Trick: On a night when the Moon is at apogee (farthest), hold your thumb at arm's length to "cover" the Moon. Try it again a few months later at perigee. You might notice the Moon feels just a bit harder to cover up.
- Watch the Tides: Since the distance affects the strength of gravity, "King Tides" often coincide with the Moon being at its closest point to Earth. Checking your local tide charts during a Supermoon will show you the real-world impact of those 1.2 billion feet.
- Photography: If you have a DSLR with a long lens (300mm+), take a photo of the Full Moon at the same settings once a month for a year. When you put the photos side-by-side, the physical change in size due to the changing distance in feet becomes incredibly obvious.
The Moon isn't a static light in the sky. It's a moving, receding, and dynamic world that hangs over a billion feet away. Understanding that distance makes you realize just how small our "blue marble" really is.