Mass of the Moon
| Value | 7.3459 × 10²² kg |
| Status | Measured: ± 1.6 × 10¹⁸ kg (2.2 × 10⁻⁵ relative), standard uncertainty |
| Source | NASA planetary fact sheet; GM from GRAIL divided by CODATA 2022 G |
| Categories | Astronomical |
| Unit | Value |
|---|---|
| kilogram | 7.3459000e+22 kg |
| Earth mass | 0.012300157 Mearth |
27 more mass units
| unified atomic mass unit (dalton) | 4.4238044e+49 u |
| picogram | 7.3459000e+37 pg |
| nanogram | 7.3459000e+34 ng |
| microgram | 7.3459000e+31 μg |
| milligram | 7.3459000e+28 mg |
| centigram | 7.3459000e+27 cg |
| grain | 1.1336456e+27 gr |
| metric carat | 3.6729500e+26 ct |
| gram | 7.3459000e+25 g |
| pennyweight | 4.7235234e+25 dwt |
| dram | 4.1459040e+25 dr |
| ounce | 2.5911900e+24 oz |
| troy ounce | 2.3617617e+24 oz t |
| troy pound | 1.9681347e+23 lb t |
| pound | 1.6194937e+23 lb |
| stone | 1.1567812e+22 st |
| slug | 5.0335404e+21 slug |
| US hundredweight | 1.6194937e+21 cwt |
| UK long hundredweight | 1.4459765e+21 cwt (UK) |
| quintal | 7.3459000e+20 q |
| US short ton | 8.0974687e+19 ton |
| metric tonne | 7.3459000e+19 t |
| UK long ton | 7.2298827e+19 long ton |
| kilotonne | 7.3459000e+16 kt |
| megatonne | 73,459,000,000,000 Mt |
| gigatonne | 73,459,000,000 Gt |
| solar mass | 3.6943588e-08 Msun |
Learning zone
The Moon is anomalously heavy for a satellite: 1/81.3 of its planet, where Jupiter's largest moon is under 1/12 000 of Jupiter. That ratio, together with the Moon's iron-poor composition and the identical oxygen-isotope signature of lunar and terrestrial rock, is the core evidence for the giant-impact hypothesis: a Mars-sized body striking the young Earth and splashing mantle material into orbit.
The mass is known from spacecraft tracking of GM, refined enormously by the twin GRAIL orbiters in 2012, which mapped the lunar gravity field to a precision no other body including Earth can match. The system's mass distribution is close enough to shared that Earth and Moon orbit a common barycentre 4670 km from Earth's centre: still 1700 km beneath the surface, but only just.
Cite this page
formula.expert. (2026, October 16). Mass of the Moon. https://formula.expert/constants/moon-mass