The typical range of surface temperatures on the Moon is about -173 to 127 degrees Celsius. The extreme span results from the Moon’s nearly airless environment: without a substantial atmosphere to distribute heat, sunlit ground becomes intensely hot while the same surface cools dramatically during the long lunar night.
A lunar day-night cycle lasts roughly 29.5 Earth days, although the Moon rotates once relative to the stars in about 27.3 days. At a given location, daylight and darkness each last approximately two Earth weeks. Sunlit equatorial regions can reach about 127 °C, while nighttime surfaces can fall to around -173 °C.
These figures describe broad typical surface extremes, not every possible location or depth. Permanently shadowed polar craters can be far colder because sunlight never reaches them directly. Measurements also vary with terrain, latitude, local illumination, and whether scientists are discussing the surface or subsurface. The Moon’s weak exosphere cannot act like Earth’s atmosphere, so stepping from sunlight into shade produces a much sharper thermal contrast than on Earth.