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
Surely we have heard many times 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 like a somewhat inaccurate figure and doesn't reveal anything in particular. When we read this figure, we might think it's a great distance between us. However, our brains can't grasp the magnitude of this distance. Since we're used to seeing the moon from Earth and it seems quite large, it can make us think it's much closer than it actually is. To better understand this concept, you can read about the nature of the moon as a satellite and its relationship with the distance that separates it from Earth.
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
The first time the distance between planet and satellite was calculated it was in 150 BC by Hipparchus. To calculate this distance, he based his calculations on the curvature of the shadow cast by our planet on the moon during a lunar eclipse. At the time, the distance was not completely accurate, given that a figure of 348.000 kilometers was obtained. Hipparchus's merit must be acknowledged, since with the limited technology available at the time, he was only less than 10% wrong about the actual 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, distance is such a large number that it's difficult to process in our minds. You can find more information about light and distance at our perspective from the moon.
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 are not large enough for their diameters to be greater than the distance between these two celestial bodies. In addition, one must consider that there are other planets close to the moon which also help us understand this scale.
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 isAnother important aspect is to assess whether or not man has actually been able to reach the moon. You can read about the process of reaching the moon in our article.
Travel to the moon
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 to the moon by car, it would take us about five months to get there. We must bear in mind that these five months would occur if and only if we did not stop even once during the entire trip. A curious fact is that, at this distance, we could observe phenomena such as the earthquakes differently, something that may be interesting when analyzing the influence of the moon on the tides.
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.
