Sea of Tranquility
Armstrong and Aldrin made humanity’s first landing on another world.
EARTH’S NATURAL SATELLITE
Earth’s Moon:
current conditions.
Current phase and estimated distance, upcoming primary phases, lunar gravity, Apollo landing locations, and sourced Moon facts.
LUNAR DATA / TODAYCURRENT LUNATION
CALCULATING…
ILLUMINATION—
DISTANCE TODAY—
SURFACE GRAVITY0.165 × Earth
LUNAR DAY29.5 Earth days
Phase and distance are astronomical estimates for the current UTC time. Primary phase times below come from the U.S. Naval Observatory.
SIX CREWED LANDINGS
Apollo landing sites.
All six sites are on the Moon’s near side and are shown schematically.
11
12
14
15
16
17
Ocean of Storms
A precision landing near the robotic Surveyor 3 spacecraft.
Fra Mauro
Shepard and Mitchell sampled ejecta from the Imbrium impact.
Hadley–Apennine
The first Lunar Roving Vehicle explored mountains and a winding rille.
Descartes Highlands
A geologic expedition into the Moon’s ancient highland terrain.
Taurus–Littrow
The final Apollo landing included geologist Harrison Schmitt.
Ice survives in permanently shadowed polar craters, while SOFIA also detected water on sunlit terrain.
Laser measurements show it recedes from Earth by roughly 3.8 centimeters each year.
With little moisture to damp vibrations, some lunar seismic events continue for many minutes.