Orbits of the Earth and Moon around the Sun, illustration. The Earth (left) orbits the Sun (centre) in 365.25 days, with its orbit (yellow ellipse) defining the ecliptic, the central plane of the solar system. The Earth rotates on its axis in 23 hours and 56 minutes, and its axis of rotation is tilted at 23.5 degrees to the place of the ecliptic. The Moon (far left) orbits the Earth in 27.3 days (red ellipse), the same time it takes to rotate on its axis (it is tidally locked with the same face pointing towards the Earth). The Moon has an axial tilt of 6.6 degrees, and its orbit is tilted at 5.1 degrees to the Earth's equator. The Earth-Sun distance is around 150 million kilometres. The average Earth-Moon distance is 384,403 kilometres.