Book 8, Question 29
Why Does the Moon Seem to Follow Your Car?
The Moon seems to follow your car because it is incredibly far away! The Moon is about 384,000 kilometers from Earth. A few kilometers of driving barely change where it appears in the sky.
More fun facts
- The Moon is about 238,855 miles (384,399 kilometers) from Earth on average. That gap could hold about 30 Earths.
- The Moon's orbit is not a perfect circle, so its distance from Earth changes a little during the month.
- The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, about 1.5 inches a year.
- Our brains are easily fooled by the Moon. It can even look bigger near the horizon, a trick called the Moon illusion.
- Our brains do not realize that the Moon's distance barely changes, wherever it is in the sky.
Sources: NASA Science, NASA, NASA Science
Questions kids ask
Is the Moon really following me?
No. It is so far away that it hardly seems to move while nearby things rush past.