The Moon
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147 free The Moon trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free the Moon trivia questions with answers. It controls our tides, lights our nights, and twelve humans have walked on it. From the first moonwalk to the mysteries still being uncovered, how much do you really know about the Moon?
30 of 147 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly how long does the Moon take to orbit Earth once?
About 27 days
About 27 days, 27.3 to be exact, is one lap measured against the stars; because Earth is moving around the Sun meanwhile, the phases take two days longer, about 29.5, to come round again.
Q 02What is the name of the first human to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong stepped out about 19 minutes ahead of Buzz Aldrin, and their lander carried scraps of wood and fabric from the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer, tying the first powered flight to the first Moon landing.
Q 03What causes the phases of the Moon?
How much of the sunlit half faces Earth
How much of the sunlit half faces Earth changes as the Moon circles us; half of it is always lit, which is why a full Moon, opposite the Sun, always rises around sunset.
Q 04What is the average distance from the Earth to the Moon, whose orbit is slightly elliptical?
238,900 miles
238,900 miles (384,400 km) is only the average: the oval orbit brings the Moon about 26,000 miles closer at its nearest than at its farthest, which is why some full Moons look slightly bigger and brighter than others.
Q 05The Moon's largest dark plain, where Apollo 12 landed, is known as the Ocean of what?
Storms
Storms: Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, is the only lunar plain large enough to be called an ocean, and Apollo 12 set down on it within walking distance of a robot probe that had arrived in 1967.
Q 06Which numbered NASA mission was the first to land humans on the Moon?
11
Apollo 11's lunar module touched down on July 20, 1969; Apollo 8 only orbited the Moon and Apollo 10 flew the landing's dress rehearsal without touching down.
Q 07What is the term for the Moon's near side always facing Earth?
Tidal locking
Tidal locking happened because Earth's gravity raised a bulge in the young Moon and kept tugging on it, braking the Moon's spin until one turn took exactly as long as one orbit.
Q 08What name is given to the second full Moon in a single calendar month?
Blue
Blue Moon has two rival meanings: the popular one is the second full Moon in a calendar month, but an older rule gives the name to the third of four full Moons in a single season.
Q 09Which theory is most widely accepted for how the Moon came to exist?
Giant impact hypothesis
The giant impact hypothesis says a Mars-sized body struck the young Earth and the debris gathered into the Moon, which would explain why the Moon has so little iron: it was built mostly from rocky outer layers.
Q 10The Moon's gravity is approximately what fraction of Earth's gravity?
1/6
1/6 of Earth's pull is why moonwalkers seem to bounce in the old footage: Apollo crews tried two-footed kangaroo hops before settling on a loping stride as the easiest way to get about.
Q 11Which spacecraft made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, in 2019?
Chang'e 4
Chang'e 4 touched down in Von Kármán crater on 3 January 2019; because the far side never faces Earth, China first parked the Queqiao relay satellite beyond the Moon to carry its signals home.
Q 12How many humans walked on the Moon during the Apollo program?
12
12 men walked on the Moon, two from each of six landings; three further landings, Apollos 18 to 20, were cancelled as budgets shrank, or the tally would have reached eighteen.
Q 13What is a lunar eclipse?
The Moon passes through Earth's shadow
Q 21Which lunar plain did Apollo 11's lunar module set down on in July 1969?
Tranquillitatis
Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility, was picked for being flat and smooth, yet the autopilot was steering for a field of boulders and the commander had to take over and fly on to clear ground.
Q 22What is the largest confirmed crater on the Moon?
South Pole-Aitken Basin
The South Pole-Aitken Basin, about 2,500 km across and up to 8 km deep, is so big that the blast should have dug up rock from far below the crust, which is why landers are sent there.
Q 23Which country was the first to land a spacecraft on the Moon?
Soviet Union
The Moon passes through Earth's shadow only at full Moon, and because the shadow darkens the Moon itself, everyone on the night side of the planet can watch, with no eye protection needed.
Q 14Which NASA program, begun in 2017, was created to return humans to the Moon?
Artemis
Artemis, named for Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology, was established in December 2017; its uncrewed first flight, Artemis I, looped around the Moon in November 2022.
Q 15Stepping onto the Moon, Buzz Aldrin summed up the view in which two words?
Magnificent desolation
Buzz Aldrin called the view 'magnificent desolation' moments after stepping off the ladder; he reused the words as the title of his 2009 memoir about the depression that followed his return.
Q 16Roughly how wide is the Moon?
About 2,160 miles
About 2,160 miles (3,475 km) makes the Moon a quarter as wide as Earth but much less dense, since its iron core is small: it would take about 81 Moons to match Earth's mass.
Q 17Which Apollo astronaut stayed in lunar orbit while his crewmates walked on the Moon during Apollo 11?
Michael Collins
Michael Collins circled alone in the command module Columbia, out of radio contact on every pass behind the Moon; he wrote that what he felt there was not loneliness but 'almost exultation'.
Q 18Apollo 11's plaque on the Moon says its crew 'came in peace for' whom?
All mankind
All mankind: the steel plaque, signed by the three astronauts and the US president, is fixed to the ladder of the lander's lower stage, which stayed behind on the Moon as the launch pad for the trip home.
Q 19What is a Moon called when it is more than half lit but less than full?
Gibbous
Gibbous comes from the Latin for 'hump', after the bulging shape; a Moon swelling toward full is a waxing gibbous, and one shrinking after it is a waning gibbous.
Q 20What is the point in the Moon's orbit where it comes closest to Earth called?
Perigee
Perigee is why some full Moons look bigger: one that falls there can appear up to 14% wider and 30% brighter than a full Moon at the farthest point of the orbit.
The Soviet Union's Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon on February 3, 1966, three years before the first crewed landing.
Q 24Which Roman goddess of the hunt was also worshipped as a goddess of the Moon?
Diana
Diana, patroness of hunters and the countryside, was merged over time with the older Moon goddess Luna, so Romans came to honour her as a triple goddess of the hunt, the Moon and the underworld.
Q 25Why does the Moon's surface swing from about 250°F by day to far below freezing at night?
It has almost no atmosphere
It has almost no atmosphere to trap or spread warmth, so ground in full Sun bakes while a patch of shadow a step away is far below freezing.
Q 26Who was the last Apollo astronaut to climb off the lunar surface?
Eugene Cernan
Eugene Cernan was last up the ladder on 14 December 1972, after the crew unveiled a plaque declaring that here 'man completed his first explorations of the Moon'.
Q 27What causes tides on Earth?
Gravity of the Moon and Sun
Gravity of the Moon and Sun stretches the oceans into two bulges, one facing the Moon and one opposite; at new and full Moon the two pulls line up and produce the extra-high spring tides.
Q 28On the Moon, what is regolith?
Loose dust and rubble blanketing the surface
Loose dust and rubble blanketing the surface was smashed from bedrock by billions of years of meteorite hits; with no wind or water to round them, the grains stay sharp enough to scratch lenses and wear out seals.
Q 29Which gas, making up over 40% of Moon soil by weight but locked into minerals, do engineers hope to extract?
Oxygen
Oxygen is the most abundant element in Moon soil, but it is bound up as oxides in the rock; European engineers have freed it from imitation moondust by electrolysis in molten salt, leaving usable metal behind.
Q 30What callsign did the Apollo 11 Lunar Module carry?
Eagle
Eagle was named for the bald eagle on the mission patch; in the first design the bird held an olive branch in its beak, but a NASA chief thought its bare talons looked too warlike, so the branch was moved to them.