Earth and Moon

  • Released Friday, May 31st, 2013
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:52PM
  • ID: 4068
A simple visualization of Moon orbiting Earth in a view from the north ecliptic pole.

There are two versions. The standard version has Earth and Moon at the proper scale in relation to their orbit. The oversize version has Earth and Moon five times larger.

The animation run corresponds to a time of three months. The camera orientation is fixed in space (relative to the distant stars) so the stars do not move but we see the changing direction of the Sun based on the lit hemisphere of Earth and Moon.

A view of Moon orbiting Earth from a point above the north ecliptic pole. Objects are to scale.

A view of Moon orbiting Earth from a point above the north ecliptic pole. Moon and Earth are five times larger than their true scale.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Datasets used in this visualization

DE421 (A.K.A. JPL DE421)
Ephemeris NASA/JPL

Planetary ephemerides

Dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ephemerides#planets

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