How hot and cold does it get on the moon?
As you may have learned, the moon doesn't have any air around it. The air that surrounds our earth acts as a nice blanket to keep us warm and comfy! But the moon, since it doesn't have this blanket, gets much colder than the earth — and much hotter than the earth. On the side of the moon that the sun is shining on, the temperature reaches 260°Fahrenheit! That is hotter than boiling. On the dark side of the moon, it gets very cold, -280° Fahrenheit.
How long would it take to fly in a 747 to the moon?
Of course we know that this can't happen, because there is no air and a plane couldn't fly fast enough to escape the earth's gravity. But we can pretend. A 747 airplane normally flies at about 400 miles per hour. The moon is about 250,000 miles away. So if we divide 250,000 by 400, we find that the plane would take 625 hours — or 26 days — to fly to the moon! Boy that would be a looong trip! Twenty-six days of eating airline food — yuck!
In a spaceship, how long does it take to get to the moon?
It depends on how fast the spaceship can travel. When the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, it took about two days.
Some Facts and Figures
Earth and Moon, side by side
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We've tried to learn as much as we can about the world we'll be visiting. The Moon is quite a bit smaller than the Earth. It's only 2,160 miles (3,476 kilometers) in diameter; compared with Earth's 7,928 miles (12,756 kilometers). If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the Moon would be no bigger than a baseball.
But even though it's small, the Moon is special to us. It is the Earth's only natural satellite - the only object, not made by humans, that orbits, or moves around, our planet. At a distance of 238,900 miles (384,400 kilometers), it's also closer than the Sun or the planets. Because it's so close, the Moon seems big and bright in our sky.
To get an idea of how close the Moon really is, imagine that the whole solar system has been shrunk down. In this small scale, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is only 100 feet (about 30 meters). Now, remember, compared with most things in space, even the Sun is quite close by. But on the same scale, do you know how far from the Earth the Moon would be? Just 3 inches! The Moon is easily our closest neighbor in space.
The Moon is not a friendly world, though. It has no liquid water and no air. In fact, it has no atmosphere of any kind. During the day, its surface is hot enough to fry an egg. At night, it is colder than the North Pole. We will be visitors to a world where there has never been any life and where everything is strange and new.
