Asker: Andrew, 12 years old
Answer
About a kilometer per second.
You can easily calculate that. The distance from the Moon is about 380 thousand kilometers. For a circular orbit this gives a circumference of 2pi times as much, so about 2.4 million kilometers. The period with which the Moon moves around the Earth (ie covers its entire circumference) is 27.3 days, so about 2.4 million seconds.
The Moon’s orbit is not really a circle, but an ellipse that is fairly ’round’. Because of that elliptical orbit, the speed of the Moon in its orbit changes somewhat. An accurate average is 1,022 kilometers per second.
Answered by
Prof. dr. Christopher Waelkens
Astronomy
Catholic University of Leuven
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
.