Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy, with sources. Folklore & tradition.

Fact #036 Strange but true

The Moon you're looking at is 1.3 seconds old.

Light covers the average 384,400 km in about 1.28 seconds. It's the only object in the sky whose delay is short enough to hold a conversation across. Apollo transmissions had a noticeable but workable two-and-a-half second round trip, and you can hear crews pausing for it in the recordings.

Source: NASA Moon facts (opens in a new tab) · checked Aug 2026

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