In terms of surface area, Asia is bigger than the moon.
How on Earth is Asia bigger than the moon?
First, it’s useful to know that the moon is only 27% the size of the Earth. Since Asia is the biggest continent on Earth, it’s not a huge surprise that it might rival the size of the moon in terms of surface area.
The surface Asia’s surface area is 44.5 million square kilometers (4.6 million square miles) while the moon’s is 37.8 million square kilometers (17.2 million square miles).
Moon stats
While the moon is the brightest object in the night sky, it’s still only about a quarter of the size of our planet.
Here are some other interesting moon stats, according to Space.com (cited below):
- The moon’s mean radius is 1,079.6 miles.
- Its mean diameter is 2,159.2 miles.
- The moon is less than a third the width of the Earth.
- The moon’s equatorial circumference is 6,783.5 miles (10,917 km).
- The Earth’s moon is the fifth largest moon in our solar system.
The moon appears so enormous because it is so close to the Earth. It’s our closest celestial body at around 238,855 miles away.
To put it in some very random perspective, “If Earth were the size of a nickel, the moon would be about as big as a coffee bean,” according to NASA.
It’s pretty wild to think about the size of objects in our solar system. Often, their measurements don’t mean much to us unless they’re compared to something we can more easily visualize. Still, the fact that Asia is bigger than the moon (in terms of surface area) is pretty mind-blowing. — WTF fun facts