Earth Moon Comparison. Image credit: NASA
[/caption]
The volume of the Moon is about 21.9 billion cubic kilometers.
Does that sound like a lot? For comparison, the volume of the Earth is 1 trillion cubic kilometers. In other words, the volume of the Moon is only 2% the volume of the Earth.
The interior of the Moon is composed of a crust, mantle and core. Astronomers think that the lunar core is about 350 km across, and accounts for only 20% of the size of the Moon. Most other planets and moons in the Solar System have a core that accounts for about 50% of their diameter. Outside the core is the middle mantle, and this is surrounded by an upper mantle.
Want to know the volume of Jupiter, or even the volume of the Sun?
Want more information about the Moon? Here’s a link to NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Science page. And here’s NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide.
You can listen to a very interesting podcast about the formation of the Moon from Astronomy Cast, Episode 17: Where Did the Moon Come From?
In recent article, soil scientist John Grant discusses the ways in which we could harvest…
It's one of nature's topsy-turvy tricks that the deep interior of the Earth is as…
To terraform Mars, we will need to give it a protective magnetic field. Here's how…
The commercial space company SpinLaunch just conducted its first successful launch test from their facility…
Planets without plate tectonics are unlikely to be habitable. But currently, we've never seen the…
Even after 30 months in space, The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission continues to successfully…