The moon's gravitational pull stabilizes Earth's wobble on its axis, leading to a stable climate. The moon's orbit around Earth is elliptical. At perigee — its closest approach — the moon comes as close as 225,623 miles (363,104 kilometers). At apogee — the farthest away it gets — the moon is 252,088 miles (405,696 km) from Earth. On average, the distance from Earth to the moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). According to NASA, That means 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in between Earth and the moon. That wasn't always the case.