how does the moon orbit the earth
The Moon orbits Earth in the prograde direction and completes one revolution in approximately 27.322 days (a sidereal month). Earth and the Moon orbit about their barycentre (common center of mass), which lies about 4600 km from Earth's center (about three quarters of the radius of Earth).On average, the Moon is at a distance of about 385000 km from Earth's center, which corresponds to about 60 Earth radii.With a mean orbital velocity of 1.023 km/s, the Moon moves relative to the stars each hour by an amount roughly equal to its angular diameter, or by about 0.5Â°.The Moon differs from most satellites of other planets in that its orbit is close to the plane of the ecliptic, and not to Earth's equatorial plane.he plane of the lunar orbit is inclined to the ecliptic by about 5.1Â°, whereas the Moon's spin axis is inclined by only 1.5Â°.