The Moon, Earth's only natural satellite, fills this album: a processed lunar frame and a photograph from 23 September 2026.
That night the Moon was a waxing gibbous, 86% sunlit at 00:00 UTC and still brightening toward full on 26 September. It stood 395,486 km from Earth's center, a little beyond the average distance of 384,399 km, and measured about 30 arcminutes across — half a degree of sky. The same face stays turned toward Earth, held by tidal locking, while a slow wobble called libration brings a little more than half the surface into view over time.
Across the disk, the dark maria are ancient lava plains and the bright highlands are older, heavily cratered crust. With a mean diameter of 3,475 km, the Moon is a little more than a quarter the width of Earth. Walking there, you would weigh about one-sixth of what you weigh here.
Facts
- Average distance (semi-major axis): 384,399 km, about 1.28 light-seconds
- Distance on 23 September 2026 at 00:00 UTC: 395,486 km
- Mean diameter: 3,475 km (radius 1,737 km), about 27% of Earth's
- 23 September 2026: waxing gibbous, 86% illuminated; full Moon on 26 September
- Orbit relative to the stars: 27.3 days; cycle of phases: 29.5 days
- Surface gravity: 1.62 m/s², about one-sixth of Earth's
