What is the average distance from the earth to the moon in meters

To complete this activity you will need to download the Earth-Moon Distance image. The above image is linked to a larger one, so take the link to the larger image, then download.

You will notice that this image is in JPG format. Your image processing software requires all images to be in TIFF format. You will need to convert these images from their original to a TIFF format. You can do this using image editing shareware. A good source of shareware for all computers is the Tucows site. Links to image editing software are:. Shareware is software that allows you to use it free for a trial period. After the end of the trial period you are asked to pay a small shareware fee if you intend to keep the software.

Because knowing how to convert images is an important tool in using image process, we ask that you learn how to do this step. Help each other out, but please do not convert the image for someone else. Knowing how to convert images will allow you to use this software for multiple purposes in your classrooms.

But, astronomical distances are often difficult to imagine. Things like planets and stars are huge , but the distances between them are much, much bigger. We evolved here on Earth, and for thousands of years, we just thought the Earth was also the Universe, or at least the most important and the biggest part of it. Our brains, our minds, have been adapted the life on Earth and the basic survival needs. But when the numbers and distances get bigger, like the distance between the Earth and the Moon, it becomes incredibly difficult to conceptualize.

And the Moon is actually the nearest planetary body to us! It looks a lot closer than it actually is. In fact, most things in outer space look closer than they actually are. You might even be overwhelmed by the true vastness and emptiness of space. Your email address will not be published. But before you go thinking that this is the final answer, you need to consider a few things.

This refers to the fact that the Moon orbits around the Earth in an elliptical pattern, which means that at certain times, it will be father away; while at others, it will be closer. Hence, the number , km, is an average distance that astronomers call the semi-major axis.

At its closest point known as perigee the Moon is only , km , miles away. And at its most distant point called apogee the Moon gets to a distance of , km , miles.

This means that distance from the Earth to the Moon can vary by 43, km. It can also have a dramatic effect on how bright the moon appears when it is in its Full phase. To get an idea of what this all looks like, check out the animation above that was released by the Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio in The animation shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year, at hourly intervals.

At this point, a good question to ask would be: how do we know how far away the Moon is? In the days of ancient Greece, astronomers relied on simple geometry, the diameter of the Earth — which they had already calculated to be the equivalent of 12, km or miles — and the measurements of shadows to make the first relatively accurate estimates.

Having observed and recorded how shadows work over a long period of history, the ancient Greeks had determined that when an object is placed in front of the Sun, the length of a shadow this generates will always be times the diameter of the object itself. So a ball measuring 2.