Over the past 250 years, the Moon has moved about 31 feet away from the Earth than it is now.
It is currently drifting away from<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/earth-day-2026-heres-how-you-can-contribute-to-make-mumbai-a-better-place-23626856" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> Earth at a rate of about 3.8 cm per year</a>, which is coincidentally roughly the same speed at which human fingernails grow.
While 31 feet may sound significant, against the Moon&rsquo;s average distance from Earth of 384,400 km, it&rsquo;s effectively nothing.&nbsp;
In fact, the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/nature-and-wildlife/article/wolf-moon-2026-first-supermoon-of-the-year-lights-up-the-sky-23610556" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">moon&rsquo;s elliptical orbit </a>causes its distance from Earth to vary by about 43,000 km every month as it moves between perigee, its closest point to Earth, and apogee, its farthest.
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The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth at around 3.8 cm a year. Here`s why it`s happening and what it means for the Earth-Moon system

Why the Moon is drifting away from Earth

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The Moon is drifting away from Earth by about 3.8 cm each year, a gradual process driven by tidal interactions that has little immediate impact on our planet

Why the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth and what it means

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