Australia is wider than the Moon
The Australian mainland, east to west, spans about 4,000 kilometres. The Moon’s diameter is about 3,475. The Pacific is several times wider still.
From Steep Point in the west to Cape Byron in the east is roughly forty degrees of longitude. At Australia’s latitudes a degree is about a hundred kilometres, and the span comes out near 4,000. The Moon is a sphere 3,475 kilometres across. Lay the diameters side by side and the continent wins. The Pacific, at its widest, is on the order of 19,000 kilometres, five times the Moon and more.
Nothing in that arithmetic makes the Moon small in the sky. A coin at arm’s length also covers it. Distance is the whole of the trick, and once the trick is granted the rest of the sky changes scale with it. The storms on Jupiter that are larger than the Earth, already in this library, are the same kind of correction.
Caveats
- ‘Wider’ means the greatest east–west reach of the mainland. A shorter cut across the continent does not beat the Moon, and Tasmania is not included.
- The Pacific’s width depends on which coasts you choose. No honest pair makes it narrower than the Moon.
Sources
- 1Williams D. R.. Moon Fact Sheet. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 2024.